February 27 – March 05 (2023)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Here’s a picture I pulled off social media this week. Astounding!

After watching Laurel & Hardy in “Jitterbugs” last Saturday night, I can’t get one of the songs from the film out of my head. I believe it’s a Harry James song, but I’m not sure of the title (maybe you can help me with this), but it sure is a winner! Check out the song as it appeared in the movie!

Monday the 27th – GLAD THIS ONLY HAPPENS EVERY 10 YEARS! – The time had come for me to renew my Driver License in person, as opposed to renewing it through the mail. We’re only allowed two “by-mail” renewals before we have to go to the local DMV office and take a new photo, take a thumbprint, and do an eye test. I made an appointment with the nearest field office, but going to the DMV is never fun, no matter where they’re located. My appointment wasn’t until 2:00, so since I had gotten up again way too early, I spent some time working on the lower lip for my Grover replica Muppet. From the looks of up-close photographs from the early days of “Sesame Street, it looks like the lip was sculpted out of foam rubber that was dyed red. Sculpting foam is never an easy task, because it’s near impossible to get the smoothness one desires. There are always “snip” lines left over from the carving where the scissors carved away the foam. I’m thinking about creating something out of foam that’s a bit cleaner. I’ll be experimenting this week. I showered and styled my hair really nice and headed over to Glendale for my DMV appointment. It was pouring rain. Again. I wanted to look nice and presentable for my DMV photo because, as I quipped to a friend, if anything ever happens to me THAT’S the picture that they’ll show on the news! How many times have you seen a news story about somebody who’s gone missing, or is on the run, etc. – and the photo they show of them on the news is their state-issued Driver License photo. Most of the time they look all buggy-eyed and frazzled. I wanted mine to be a nice one in case that ever happened to me. Yeah, that’s how my mind works from time to time. I got a nice early start and drove over to Glendale. I wasn’t sure what kind of time I’d make in the rain and I didn’t want to be late. The trip went a lot quicker than I anticipated, so I ended up parking in front of the DMV office about an hour too early. There was a little Italian eatery across the street called Nino’s pizza, so I grabbed some lunch before I headed into the DMV. I got into the field office at 1:50pm and it was just as chaotic as I remember it. People everywhere. Signs everywhere. And chaos. It was difficult to tell who was in charge because they looked just like everyone else in the building. They should have them wearing vests, or jackets, or hats, or something! There were two lines of people along the wall, and signs separated them. One sign said APPOINTMENTS (only about 2 people were in that line), and the other line said NON-APPOINTMENTS (and that line had about 20 people in it. What is so hard about going on the website and making an appointment? I don’t get it. Unless people wait until the last minute to renew their license and have to show up a few days before their license expires. Mine doesn’t expire until May so I still had plenty of time. I got right up to the front of the line, showed my printed paperwork to the attendant, and he showed me to a computer kiosk where I could fill out my application information. It took about 10 minutes. I got a number and then waited to be called on the overhead P.A. system. I waited another 10 minutes and then went to window 11. I paid the fee, had a thumb print taken, and then did the eye test. I had Lasik surgery back in 1998 and my eyes are still pretty good for distance. The only thing I need to wear glasses for is for reading. With both eyes open the eye test went well. She said to cover my left eye, and with only my right eye the test went well. But when I covered my right eye, and read with my left eye, it was blurry! I squinted and focused and passed the test. But I was sweating a bit. I had no idea that the vision in my left eye had gotten so blurry. Was it because my eyes were tired, or was it from crying all weekend over the loss of my doggie? I wasn’t sure. Then I remembered hearing something a long time ago about how your Lasik surgery may need a touch-up after about 25 years. I guess that time is coming. I made a mental note to make an eye appointment with my eye doctor. Then I went to the far side of the room where the cameras were for my photo. The whole process took about 40 minutes, which is pretty slick. In the old days, this process would take well over an hour! I headed down the street and drove by a Foster’s Freeze ice cream stand in Burbank. I pulled in and got myself a banana split. I kept driving down Glen Oaks Blvd. looking for a familiar street to turn down. I finally found Hollywood Way and headed south. Since I was so close to my pal Alex in Wonderland’s shop, I gave her a call to see if I could swing by and pick up my Nate Atez (long A, long E) puppet. I wasn’t due to see her until later, but I was literally 2 minutes away from her shop. While I waited for her to reply I pulled into a parking lot, listened to some tunes, and ate my banana split. She shot me a reply and I headed over to her shop. I dropped off some material and Styrofoam egg shapes so she could make the nose for my new Grover replica Muppet, picked up the Nate puppet, and headed out. I got some groceries, got my mail at my box, got 3 chicken breasts to-go at Paty’s (for my salads), and headed home to load everything in. I’m still not quite used to not having Roxy there when I get home, but in the final months she wasn’t really cognizant of me arriving home anyway. Her hearing was almost completely gone and she slept a lot. But still, it’s weird. But for the nonce I’ve wrapped my brain (and my heart) around the fact that I did what was right and necessary. In an effort to stay busy and mentally occupied, I sat down and started working on Grover’s lower lip. I think I’ve found the answer. Instead of sculpting a piece of foam into a horseshoe shape, I’d cut a long, tapered piece of ¼” thick foam rubber, fold it over on itself, glue it together, and dye it red. Since the foam is so flexible, I’ll glue it down on the mouth plate in a curved shape. No need to carve a curved piece at all! I gave it a try and it looked like the concept was going to work! That foam piece should conform to the curvature of the mouth plate very nicely! I grabbed a short nap, and when I woke up it had started raining again. I did a ton of auditions, and finished writing Wally’s Week. I was expecting a very busy day on Tuesday.

Tuesday the 28th – CELEBRATING OUR “ADOPTED GRANDMA!” – Today would have been the 96th birthday of my “adopted grandma” Shirley. Her memorial service was set for 11am, and several folks from our “movie night” crew were expected to attend. My pal Scott Sebring came by and we drove over together. Since Shirley’s favorite color was pink, I bought a dozen pink roses the previous day at the grocery store. They were gorgeous. I took the flowers in, greeted Shirley’s family, and placed the flowers at the front of the church. It was a really great service, with hardly any tears at all. Shirley would have liked that! My friends Aliza, Amy, Emily, Edi, Elliot, Ems, James, and Dr. Cowen were all there! It was nice to meet certain members of Shirley’s family that I had never met before. And a few of them had come to personally thank me for being so kind to her over the years. Truly, it was my honor. After the service a few of us went to Paty’s to grab lunch and chat. Then Scott and I headed to JoAnn’s to get some supplies I got some thread for my seamstress Maggie, who was coming this week to put Nate Atez (long A, long E) together, and I got some other fabric and supplies for Super Grover. I found some delightful cape material that is very close to the stuff they use on the original. It’s red, sheer, and has a great “flow” to it. We got back to Planet Wallywood and Scott took off, and I recorded a last-minute audition. Since the carpet cleaners were coming on Wednesday to clean the entire house, I figured I’d better do some work in the living room that involved bringing up my tall ladder. I didn’t want to set the dirty ladder feet on the carpet AFTER it had been cleaned, so I set about doing the things I needed today to get them out of the way. The masking I had placed on the “water ripple” lighting effect that I have on my Creature From The Black Lagoon bust had come unattached. The spread of the light was too wide initially, so I cut a half-moon piece of duct tape and placed it over the lens to focus the light mostly on the Creature. It masked off the overflow of light that I didn’t want. But when I touched the light to remove the old piece of duct tape, the motor gave out. The light was still on, but the motor that made the light “ripple” stopped working. Luckily I had bought two identical lighting units when I bought this one (for an occasion exactly like this), so I located it, swapped it out, put on a new piece of duct tape to focus the lighting, and retired the old unit. Right next to the Creature is a shelf that holds my quarter-scale classic monster figures. A long time ago I built a castle wall façade that stands behind them as a backdrop. The castle windows are made of translucent plastic, and I had a lighting effect behind both windows so I could turn on a colored light that illuminated the windows in an eerie fashion. But sometimes when I’d hit the master switch to turn everything on, the LED light bulb would forget its most recent command, and default back to white. This would require me to find the remote, and send a new command to bulbs to shine red. I got tired of doing that eventually, so I bought some “fire” bulbs. Last Halloween some neighbors had a “fire” bulb in their porch light, and it looked amazing. It looked like the flame of a torch was lighting their porch, but it was all a cool LED bulb effect. I figured I’d put these behind the windows of the castle wall to make it look like the fireplace was roaring inside. It ended up being a very cool look. A while back the transition “beauty” piece that hangs over the top of my vertical blinds had fallen down. The piece does nothing more than hides the section where the panels connect into the overhead traveler. These vertical blinds have been here since I bought the house 22 years ago. The plastic clips that kept the beauty piece in place had gotten brittle and old, and cracked apart. After several attempts to connect them in other ways, I broke out the old, trusty epoxy putty and put them into place. The piece will never come apart again, no matter how hard you might try to separate it. It’s permanent now. I rehung the artwork that had previously been on the piece and headed out to go pick up my friend Bianca for dinner. It was pouring rain again, We tried Little Toni’s, but there wasn’t any parking and the wait was about 20 minutes for a table. So then we went to Chin Chin for some Chinese food. When I took Bianca back home it was raining even harder, and the streets were beginning to flood again. While I appreciate all the great rain we’ve been getting, (we need it!) this was getting tiresome. I can’t wait for those warm, spring/summer days again! I got back home, did some work, and then took a nap. The sound of a heavy downpour woke me up! I went back downstairs to do some final work in the living room and prepped for the carpet cleaners. I sat down on the computer to capture some screenshots of my characters from the old “Transformers; Robots in Disguise” cartoon. Next weekend I’d be appearing briefly at a local Transformers convention and I needed to grab these shots for my artwork. I also grabbed a couple of screenshots from the movie “Follow That Bird” to look more closely at Super Grover’s costume. After looking at these shots I realized I needed to go back to JoAnn’s to get a different cord for the cape. While I was looking through the computer, I happened to open up my file of Roxy photos. She was simply the greatest dog I’ve ever, ever known. What a truly devastating loss. This is gonna hurt for a while.

Wednesday the 1st – CLEAN CARPETS ARE COOL! – The carpets in Planet Wallywood hadn’t been cleaned in a very long time, so I figured it was long overdue to have every carpet in the house thoroughly washed. The cleaners arrived right at 1, and I worked on the computer while the guys got busy. When they finished it sure looked great! The first pass I did at Grover’s lower lip pattern was a bit too narrow, so I modified the pattern and it was perfect! I need to dye some foam red and cut a few test pieces out. I recorded an audition, and then met up with my neighbor Bob and drove over to Barone’s for dinner. On the way home I dashed into JoAnn’s to get some yellow cord for Super Grover’s cape. When I got home I napped. The carpet still wasn’t quite completely dried yet, and that shows that the cleaners were very thorough! When I woke up later I worked around the house, and cleaned off the kitchen table to prepare for my seamstress Maggie to arrive tomorrow to work on the Nate puppet. (I had all my Grover stuff scattered all over the table!) I ordered some macramé yarn on eBay that I thought would be nice for Super Grover’s cape. Just before bed I heated up some leftover Barone’s pizza and watched an episode of “The Incredible Hulk.” It was an all-star guest cast with the likes of Carl Anderson (Judas from “Jesus Christ Superstar”), Michael Roberts (Rooster from “Baretta”), and Ernie Hudson from “Ghostbusters!”

Thursday the 2nd – NATE WILL BE GREAT! – The weather was truly gorgeous and I couldn’t wait to get out for a brisk walk! I did a few auditions to start the day before my seamstress Maggie came over. We started assembling my Nate Atez (long A, long E) puppet, and got his legs attached and his pants altered. With Saran Wrap and painter’s tape she wrapped his torso to create a pattern for his t-shirt. She took the pattern and the fabric home to work on his shirt at her leisure. I put on my workout clothes and walked over to the store to get some food, and CVS to pick up a few supplies. It felt good to be out again, now that the weather had improved. While I was at CVS I had a 5 X 7 photo of Roxy printed to frame and put on my desk, right next to the photo of my first dog Sassie. On the way home I stopped at Subway to get a sandwich. I got back home and ate dinner and relaxed. I took a short nap, and when I got up later I did my nightly auditions, worked around the house, and cleaned up some areas for the arrival of the maids the next day.

Friday the 3rd – REDDER IS BETTER! – The maids arrived to clean Planet Wallywood and it was another gorgeous day. When they finished up I walked over to the post office to mail off some stuff. I went back to CVS to print another Roxy picture because the first one had too much border and looked odd in the frame. I walked back home with plans to drive to the local UPS store to mail off a package of autographs I completed. But as luck would have it, a UPS driver was in the complex making some deliveries, so he took my package for me, so I stayed home and got some work done. Frankly, it wasn’t a good day for me emotionally, as I was thinking about Roxy a lot. I took a long nap. Later I got up to do my auditions and do some miscellaneous work around the house. I dyed some foam rubber with the scarlet dye I bought the other day, but it turned out way too dark. I looked on-line and discovered that the dye I actually need is a cherry red shade. Oh well. If I ever need some dark red foam, I’ve now got plenty. I started thinking about ways I could make some Ernie custom Vans shoes. I tried to find a good pattern for his sweater (the red and blue striped stuff) but I decided just to order an Ernie sweater to get a better high resolution scan of the fabric. They should be pretty cool shoes when they’re done! I also ordered some custom plates for the Gray Ghost, even though most of the configurations I wanted were already taken. But I got one that I think I’ll like. I’m looking forward to the weekend quite a bit. It just HAS to be better than last weekend, after all. I made myself a tasty salad and watched another “Incredible Hulk” episode. It’s strange, but I haven’t seen one of these episodes yet that have been outstanding. Some have been awful, while some are “less awful.” I’m really not sure if I’m going to make it through the remaining three seasons of this show.

Saturday the 4th – AT LAST…ANOTHER “LAUREL & HARDY THEATRE!” – An email came in that said my Blu-ray copy of the old 1968 Filmation Batman cartoon was waiting for me at my box. So I hopped in the Gray Ghost and headed over to get it. My pals Mark and James would be coming over later so I figured they might like to check it out too. I got some quick lunch at the McDonald’s drive-thru (with unsalted fries!) and I headed back home. The plan was to walk to the local Michael’s craft store, but by the time I got home it was getting cloudy and chilly. So I opted to get a few hours’ rest before Mark and James arrived. When the guys arrived we all hopped in the Gray Ghost and headed to Barone’s for dinner. But the wait was considerable because, like a total jerkwad, I didn’t make a reservation. (My mind’s been a bit preoccupied this past week) But it was fun chatting and standing around waiting for our table. As usual, the food was incredible. We came back to Planet Wallywood and watched a few episodes of the old “Adventures of Batman” on Blu-ray, and then we watched a few more episodes of “Tiger and Bunny” from season 2 on Netflix. I think we’re up to episode 5 now. After the guys left I grabbed a quick nap on the couch in front of the fireplace. I got up to do some work around the house all night. I’m still getting those occasional “sad spells” from time to time, and they seem to come out of nowhere. The slightest thing will remind me of Roxy and I just have to cry it out and move on. I’ve been looking forward to my monthly “Laurel and Hardy Theatre” for a long time, and tonight’s the night. As is tradition on the first Saturday of each month, I made myself a Chef Boyardee pizza, some yummy popcorn, and grabbed a banana Twinkie and filled my Stan Laurel mug to the brim with ice cold Diet Pepsi. I really needed the laughs…now more than ever. The movie was “Jitterbugs” and it made me very happy. I remember seeing it in passing as a kid, as a few scenes popped out at me and triggered my memory. This is a great film, and it’s the first film in a long time where The Boys aren’t complete imbeciles. They actually help to execute a reverse con perfectly in an attempt to get a girl’s money back from disreputable gangsters. (Is that term redundant?) I loved it! It was funny, but also, it was a darn good movie with a great script! Unfortunately I started noticing by Sunday morning that my cat Spook wasn’t acting his usual self. He seemed lethargic and had vomited up some water. I’m going to keep my eye on him all day Sunday and see if he improves.

Sunday the 5th – SLEEPY SPOOK! – Though I had fully intended to get another walk in, it was cloudy, gloomy and had a chance of rain looming. I’ll go tomorrow. I’m sure looking forward to getting into some nice weather! This rainy weather is getting to be a drag. As is usual on a Sunday, there wasn’t much going on. I just hung out and relaxed, and kept my eye on Spook. He was asleep on the couch and continued sleeping most of the day. I started thinking that maybe cats can get sad too, and that he might be missing Roxy. I napped on and off, while checking on Spook periodically. I think Monday morning I may need to take him into the vet, as he hasn’t eaten much, drank very much, and he hasn’t used his litter box in a while. I hope he’s OK.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK