January 21 – January 26 (2025)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I love this colorized photo of Laurel & Hardy that shows The Boys completely out of character. Just a couple of comic actors hanging out plotting their next adventure!

When I was a radio DJ back in the midwest in the early 80s we played the heck out of a song called “Cool Change” by the Little River Band. While I was dining at Little Toni’s this past weekend with my friend Brittney and my gal Angi, the song came on the overhead music system. SInce I hadn’t heard it in a while it sounded really great to me. But then later the song came up again on my device, so we heard it twice within the course of about three hours. WILD! What are the chances? It’s a lovely song, so I just had to share it with you.

Tuesday the 21st – ENOUGH! – My eyes sprang open after only a few hours of sleep and I was ready to tackle the day. I had enjoyed enough sleep over the weekend. It was time to get busy! It was another gorgeous L.A. day. I stopped by my box to get some packages, hit the Burger King drive-thru to get some lunch, and then I went to Hobby Lobby to stock up on supplies for my photo album project. I was in luck! They had several of the binders that I like, so I picked up four of those. They also had lots of the blank pages and plastic page protectors that I like, so I really stocked up! I stopped over to my auxiliary garage and put the new registration sticker on the license plate of my Gran Torino. I noticed that the car covers for both the Torino and the Mustang were all mussed up, and the cable that locks the car cover onto the Torino was lodged behind a part of the lower trim. What had happened?! Then it hit me. My auxiliary parking spaces are in a complex that’s about four stories up, and there are large openings on either side. This allowed for those tremendous winds we recently experienced in L.A. to whip through and cause havoc. As I was working away one of the employees came through and said that other car owners had experienced trouble with their car covers as well because of the wind. He said one owner had to call out a specialist, as the wind had whipped his car cover around so violently that it actually got wrapped around the rear axle of the car! Unreal! I got the Mustang started up and parked the Rav temporarily. Within the next few days I have to get it “smogged” (the biennial requirement to get the car smog checked in order to get it registered) so I can update its registration. There are a few really beautiful days coming up, so it’ll be good to drive around with the top down! I went back home to relax and open my packages. One of them contained the new blue sweater for my cat Spooky. Since he’s 19.5 years old he’s mostly skin and bones now, with hardly any body fat on him at all! So I’m hoping this sweater will help keep him warm. I put it on him and everything was going well, but as I was sitting at my computer I heard a “thunk” coming from the downstairs bathroom. I went in and found that Spook had tried to jump into his litter box, but he had gotten tangled up in the sweater and couldn’t make the leap effectively. So I pulled the sweater off so it wouldn’t inhibit his already-limited flexibility. Poor little cat. I recorded my nightly auditions, typed out Wally’s Week, and then suited up to go take my nightly WOG (walk/jog). I came back inside to finish up Wally’s Week, went through my personal bank statement and got everything reconciled, and went through my receipts. What a successful day!

Wednesday the 22nd – SENSORS INDICATE…! – Every other year when it’s time to get my Mustang smog checked so it will qualify for registration, I always hit a local smog check place that gets me in and out in a short time. Additionally, they’re certified by the state to issue registration stickers when the car passes inspection, so it’s very convenient one-stop-shopping! While the Mustang passed with flying colors, the brake sensor is still giving me issues. There is a little safety device built into cars that will only allow the car to be put into gear once it’s assured that the brake is being depressed. The little gizmo that does that is called the brake sensor. And if that goes out in most cars, there is a work-around that still allows you to put it into gear to get to a mechanic. However, in the Mustangs there is no quick fix. So when I start the car I depress the brake and push in the little thumb button on the gear shift on the center console to put it into either R or D. But sometimes the little thumb button won’t go in so I can move the gear shift. This means the sensor that tells the shifter to shift is malfunctioning. So I need to get the car in for service very soon! During the time I had the Mustang out it happened just a few times, but after pumping the brakes a few times it woke the sensor up and allowed me to get it into gear. Whew! I went over to my box to pick up some more packages. I’ve been having a devil of a time trying to find the perfect tie for the new Roger Moore James Bond figure I’m having made. In the movie “The Man With The Golden Gun” he’s in an all-black suit with an odd jagged edged tie with an unusual pattern. After exhaustive research I realized that the tie was a knitted tie (popular back in the 70s and 80s), so I set about searching for the perfect black knitted tie. The first one I bought was much too skinny, so I purchased a second one that was wider. The wider one arrived, but the knit pattern was too small and not “chunky” enough for the look I was going for. Back to the drawing board! I got hungry so I stopped through the McDonald’s drive-thru to get some lunch. Since I had the top down it’s easy for people to talk to me about the car. As I was in the drive-thru line a homeless man complimented me on the car and mentioned that he had a Mustang once. The amount of details that he was offering showed me that he really knew his cars! We kept talking as I pulled up to the window to get my order. He asked if I could get him something to eat. I asked him what he wanted and he said a sundae and a Quarter Pounder. When I got my food I asked the attendant if I could place a quick order. He said they didn’t have a cash register at that window. I thought about putting my car in reverse and going back to the first window to place an order, but that would have been unsafe. I told the homeless man that I was really sorry. He said it was OK, but I could see the disappointment in his eyes. As another car pulled up behind me in the drive-thru I knew I had to get out of the way. I didn’t know what to do. In retrospect I should have pulled back into the drive-thru line and placed another order, but by the time I would have made it back through the line the guy could have been gone. It was rather sad. It was just one of those things. But if I see him around there again next time I’ll know better. I went back home and started working on my photo albums. I’m trying to get the timeline correct in the progression of the photos. There was a cable access show I worked on back in the early 90s called “Welcome To Hal-Land,” in which I helped produce, write and perform a bunch of characters. There’s hardly any info about it on-line, so it was tough to remember which episodes came in what order. Luckily I had some info to go on in my Day Planners from those years, so I could reconstruct the timeline as best as possible. But it was a lot of work. I looked around on-line for a chunky, wide knitted tie – and I found one in Japan! It was $100, but it would look perfect on the figure! I got some updated shots from my pal Rubber Larry, who’s doing the Roger Moore facial sculpt, and he’s looking good! Larry is the best celebrity likeness sculptor in the business and I’ll be excited to have something from him in my collection! I did my nightly auditions, relaxed for a bit, and then did some more auditions. I took my nightly WOG, and then came back inside to do some miscellaneous stuff around the house. I sewed a button on a pair of shorts, and did some more work on my photo albums. Since it’s the beginning of the year gigs are slow in coming, but it’ll pick up soon I’m sure. Plus I have a LOT of appearances coming up soon, so I’m looking forward to getting out and meeting people!

Thursday the 23rd – 77! – After a stop through the Jack-In-The-Box drive thru (I’ve really been eating badly this week!) I went over to CVS to get 77 photos printed from a flash drive. These are photos that I’ve color corrected so I can use them to replace the older, yellowed photos in my photo albums. It took a while for them all to print out, so I just sat in my car and ate my dinner until they finished. I got home and did my nightly auditions, relaxed for a bit, and took my WOG. When I came back inside I went back to work on my photo albums and worked all through the night. I got into a creative groove as I was reconstructing the timeline of my daughter Lacey’s first tip to L.A. back in 1988. Since I’ve done some reconfiguring on my narrative and timeline, the photo albums all flow so beautifully now. I’m not sure if anyone else will ever see these, but even if I’m the only one to ever enjoy them, it was all worth the work.

Friday the 24th – HERMIT! – Since I had worked on the photo albums through the night for quite a long time, I ended up sleeping very late in the day. I thought about going to dinner, but everyone I called had either already eaten, or was in for the night. So, I threw my pajamas back on and went back to bed for some more rest. Later I got up to do auditions. It was going to be a very busy weekend, so I wanted to get them all out of the way upfront. I did some more work on the photo albums, and I was in such a creative groove that I didn’t want to stop for my nightly WOG. But I did get a lot done!

Saturday the 25th – BLUSTERY DAY! – The forecast for the weekend called for rain on and off, and the day was already starting to look quite overcast and blustery. I wanted to get a few errands completed before the rain started, so I got the Mustang back to my auxiliary parking lot and put her to bed. I’ll get her out again once my mechanic informs me that the new brake sensor part is in hand. I got some food at Taco Bell and headed over to CVS again to get some more color-corrected photos printed. I got a few grocery items and then headed home. I sat down and worked on the photo albums again, and by the time the night was done I had completed everything up through the year 1992! I’m now ready to tackle the year 1993, which was a very pivotal year for me personally and professionally. It started to rain, so I figured it was a good time to settle into bed for a short nap. By the time I woke up the rain had stopped, so I threw on my WOG clothes and headed outside to get my 1.5 miles in. My pal Brittney Powell would be flying in on Sunday morning to stay with me for a few days. She’s coming to town to appear at the upcoming Xena convention in Burbank, and she flew in a few days early so she could see some friends. I vacuumed, cleaned and organized. I got the Puppet Room prepped and ready for her use. In the first act of healthy eating I’ve had in several days, I made a super salad and settled in to watch another episode of “Boris Karloff’s Thriller.” I figured the rain outside would create a nice ambience for viewing such a show, but no luck. The rain had stopped for a while, as we were between rain storms. Rats! But the episode was terrific! I also watched a “Collector’s Call” episode from last week that I had recorded on my DVR. Fun!

Sunday the 26th – RAIN! THUNDER! A RAINBOW! – Since Brittney’s plane was coming in around noon I wasn’t able to do my usual “sleepy Sunday” routine and veg out all day. I had to get up and get moving! As I worked I heard some large thunderclaps. It was really nice! It heralded the onset of another rainstorm! By the time Brittney got to my house it was around 1, so we sat around and got caught up on everything that’s been going on in life since I had seen her last. I was in Dallas for a convention last spring and had seen her and her sister then, but she hasn’t been in L.A. since the last Xena convention about a year ago. I put fresh sheets on the bed in the Puppet Room and she got situated. As I worked in my room I looked out the window and saw a gorgeous rainbow in the eastern sky! LOVELY! My gal Angi would be coming over for dinner later so I did some work while Brittney grabbed a quick nap. When Angi arrived I had to make sure that Spook was distracted so he wouldn’t notice that Angi’s dog Khloe was there. In his old age Spook has taken to marking spots around the house when he sees another animal, so I’m trying to prevent that by distracting him while Angi moves Khloe upstairs to my room. Once we had the pets separated we headed to Little Toni’s for dinner. The idea was that we would sit on the patio at Paty’s and watch it rain on the boulevard while we ate. But it wasn’t raining at that time, so we made alternate plans. Later it had started raining pretty good, so a WOG wasn’t possible.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Even though it’s in the preliminary stages of the sculpting process, and hasn’t been refined yet, the likeness of Roger Moore is definitely evident! I can’t wait to see how the final product turns out! Rubber Larry Torro is amazing!