July 27 – August 2 (2020) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

This made me laugh hard. The cardboard cutouts of people at ball games is probably the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. And I’ve seen a LOT of ridiculous things!

Though I considered the first season theme to “Space 1999” to be “mystery disco,” I consider the theme to the second season to be very “Filmation-esque.” Both are great theme songs, but very different. Here’s the theme to the second season of the show, which I’ve been humming all week.

Monday the 27th – PET TO THE VET! – At 6am sharp I had Roxy over to the local emergency vet to get her seen for her diarrhea and tummy cramps. She had been crying a bit over the past day, and it had gotten worse overnight. Oddly enough, when I looked at the pain medication I had for her from the last time she had this problem, it was dated July 21st, 2019 – virtually a year and a week ago! Very strange. I dropped her off to be seen and then came home and napped on the couch while I waited for the doctor to call me with a diagnosis. After she got some meds and some hydration, I went to pick her up a few hours later. When she got home her appetite had improved quite a bit. Later I went to get some groceries and dropped off several bags for my ‘adopted grandma’ Shirley, who has been locked down in her assisted living compound since March. I haven’t been able to visit her or give her a hug since then as she hasn’t been allowed to leave her one-room residence. It kills me, but since she’s 93 it’s probably for the best. I hit Jack In The Box to get some food to go and then headed home. Roxy was feeling her old self again, which was nice to see. I recorded some auditions, wrote Wally’s Week, prepped for a session on Tuesday afternoon in my home studio, made some Buffalo Mac and watched “The Mod Squad” before bed.

Tuesday the 28th – GREAT GREEN GROVER!!! – After doing an hour and a half Voice Over session for a computer security system from 2 to 3:30, which went VERY well, I got in the Mustang and drove over to my mailbox to pick up my packages. I hit Taco Bell for some drive-thru food, and then went over to Alex In Wonderland in Burbank to have her finish up my Green Grover Muppet replica. I’ve been working on him for a while now and today he was going to get finished up and delivered into my hands! Alex had moved the eye pieces down a half inch, and she had previously removed the other nose, and attached a much better one with virtually undetectable seams! Once she secured the eyes in place, she took him in the back of her studio to finish airbrushing his fur. He looked fantastic! I took him home to work with him and start making his stand for display in Planet Wallywood! When I made the stand for my Beautiful Day Muppet replica several months ago, I also had a second piece of Masonite cut for Green Grover’s stand. I covered GG’s base with purple fleece, and found a piece of wood dowel in my storage that was the perfect length! I covered that with maroon microsuede and attached the dowel to the base with a long screw and a washer. Perfection! Then I topped the wood dowel with a piece of thick foam rubber, so the sharp edge of the wood wouldn’t damage the foam rubber inside GG’s head while he was on display. Since GG’s much shorter than Beautiful Day, I need to get an 8” tall block of charcoal-colored foam rubber to put his stand on, so he and Beautiful Day can look eye to eye in the display case. I did my nightly auditions and listened to a radio show about Nostradamus. It’s always fascinating to me. I took Roxy on a nice, long walk through the neighborhood and enjoyed a nice cigar. I came inside to make some chili, and watched a video on-line of scary conspiracy-theory stuff that a friend sent me. Chilling!

Wednesday the 29th – SHAKE AND BAKE! – All afternoon I spent the day working around the house and relaxing. The weather was going to be heating up to triple digits over the next few days! I stayed inside mostly, signing and sending off some autographed photos. I just barely got them to the mailman in time to get sent off! I’m used to my former mailman coming later in the afternoon, which was nice. But this new mailman comes early and is VERY fast! He sweeps through the neighborhood in record time! You gotta be fast to catch him if you want to mail something! I made some phone calls, recorded some auditions and worked on my computer. I’m really glad that Roxy’s on the mend, because I just hate seeing her out of sorts. I was watching another scary conspiracy-theory themed video just before I turned in, and at a very unnerving part everything started rattling in my house. EARTHQUAKE! It was a doozy too! It was a 4.2 at around 4:30am! Unlike most shakers than happen, this one actually knocked some stuff off my shelves! I immediately grabbed my light and walked around the neighborhood to make sure everyone was OK. Only one elderly neighbor was out and about, and once I was assured that she was OK I went back inside. Hardly any of my neighbors even so much as turned on their lights! That’s how used to quakes everyone is here, I guess. Just roll over and go back to sleep. I made some hot dogs and watched “The Mod Squad” before turning in. And as I was watching the episode, ANOTHER quake at 7:30am! Luckily not as big as the first one a few hours earlier. That’s part of life in So Cal I guess.

Thursday the 30th – THE CREEPIEST MASK I OWN! – After getting adjusted at my chiropractor’s office, I drove over to Foam Mart to get a block of foam to elevate Green Grover in his display case. I hit Burger King for some lunch, and then drove by my mailbox to get my packages. My custom-made mask from Amazon had arrived. Last week, I was walking around with my face covering on. Since people can’t really tell your facial expression when you engage with them I was sick of not looking like myself. So I took one of my extra smiley headshots and uploaded it into the template on the amazon custom mask site. It turned out great, but the image on it is a little bigger than my real face, which makes the smile extra creepy. I LOVE IT! I took it home and washed it really well, and when it dried I inserted the filter. The foam cube was perfect for Green Grover and he and Beautiful Day look like quite the team; planning some sort of mischief in the Tranquility Zone! I did some work around the house, and noticed that a beautiful moon was overhead. I went out to my Tranquility Annex, set up my hammock, and got some nice rest while the moon shone on my face. It was really nice!

Friday the 31st – SHIRLEY AND A SHOOT! – My pal Edi and I hadn’t had lunch together in a long time, so we agreed to meet at Panera to dine on their patio. I hadn’t been to Panera since before the whole virus thing started and I remembered why. They screwed up my order, as they usually do. Not sure why they do that. I went to CVS to buy some dark blue nail polish for a video shoot I’d be doing later. I drove over to Shirley’s place to drop off another set of movies for her to watch, and pick up the movies she had just finished. I’ve been trying to keep her entertained with books and movies ever since this virus thing started. My smile mask was getting a lot of double-takes, smiles, laughs and comments. It’s good to see people laughing. I chatted with my computer guy Brian, who lives in Denver. I was trying to ascertain why my iPad was no longer syncing with my iTunes program. But after looking around at several options, Brian and I determined that my business with Apple was finished. I bought a new tablet on-line and when it arrives, he’s going to help me get set up with a new music organization program that’s non-Apple related. It’s probably all for the best as I’ve always found iTunes to be an intrusive, controlling interface. My pals Officer Mark and Miss Connie met me for dinner at Paty’s, and then we went to Planet Wallywood so we could shoot a live-action intro to an animated video I’m making to showcase my kid’s book project. After about 20 takes we finally got the right angle and choreography we needed. When they left I got some more hammock time in, with a gorgeous nearly full moon shining on my face. I came back inside to do some work, and then made some spaghetti. I had wanted to make lasagna, but it was too hot to turn on the oven! I ate dinner and watched another episode of “The Mod Squad” before bed.

Saturday the 1st – TRYING TO MAKE A TIME MACHINE! – I gave myself permission to sleep late, and once I got up I busied myself around Planet Wallywood breaking down the “set” we used for our Friday night video shoot. I made some soup and a sandwich and got ready to watch Svengoolie on ME-TV. He was showing “Werewolf of London,” a film I had never seen before, and I was very curious. Unfortunately I didn’t end up liking the movie very much. It was actually pretty awful. The lead character wasn’t a very sympathetic guy, like Lon Chaney Jr. in “Wolfman,” But I’m glad I saw it for future reference. I worked in the garage for a while putting stuff away; puppet materials, utilities for my audio studio that I used for the session earlier in the week, and other stuff. I walked Roxy and noticed how gorgeous the full moon was. Missing my beloved times in Palm Springs, I decided to take a comfy chair out behind my house and just sit there and watch the sky for a while. But unlike in Palm Springs, the light pollution prevented me from seeing too many stars, as did the bright full moon. Even though Palm Springs has also become horribly light polluted over the past few years, it’s still not as bad as L.A. skies. But still it was nice, cool and relaxing to just sit there and gaze at the sky in total peace and quiet. I was wondering if I’ll ever get to go back to Palm Springs again like the old days, and enjoy my time in room 627 at the Hyatt. I was in a very nostalgic mood on a lot of different levels. Though my normal Saturday night routine involves making my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watching “Space 1999,” tonight I was going to attempt to create a “time machine” of sorts. Back in 1974, when my Gran Torino had just come off the assembly line, KABY-TV in my hometown of Aberdeen, South Dakota showed “Laurel and Hardy Theatre” every Saturday night at 10:30, right after the nightly news at 10. My family’s Saturday night routine back then was such…go out to eat at Lu’s Italian Villa and enjoy a delicious pizza (probably the best pizza I’ve ever had in my entire life). We’d take our leftovers home with us to be enjoyed later. As my dad was paying the check at the counter, I would always grab a bag of Old Dutch popcorn to also be enjoyed later. We’d go home and I’d busy myself with stuff while I waited for 10:30 to roll around. When it did, I set up my little cassette recorder next to the TV. I wrapped the microphone around the channel changer of the TV (remember those?) so it would hang right in front of the TV’s speaker. I liked to record the audio from Laurel and Hardy movies so I could work on impersonating their voices and routines. It’s probably the first ever intensive study for an eventual career in Voice Over that I ever did. My parents and littlest sister were in bed, but my younger sister Peggy would try to stay up with me and watch the movies too. Though I forbid her from laughing so she didn’t ruin my recording. It was tough to do, as we both struggled to stifle our laughter. There I sat with my leftover Lu’s pizza, my bag of Old Dutch popcorn, and most likely a Banana Flip (a popular snack from the day which was consisted of a flat, round piece of sponge cake, topped with banana-flavored cream filling and folded in half like a taco.) My mom was very active in ceramics class at that time, and had made me GIANT Laurel and Hardy mugs to drink from. I used to fill the mugs with ice and pour Pepsi over them. Lu’s pizza, popcorn, banana flips, ice cold Pepsi, and an hour and a half of Laurel and Hardy classics. Good times. The TV station would usually either run one of their feature films, or three shorts. All of the anger and sadness in the world has made me long for simpler times, so I decided I was going to try and replicate my old Saturday night ritual as closely as possible. Lu’s pizza has been out of business for decades. And even though you can still buy kits on-line of the spices used in her pizza recipe, it’s just not the same. So I made a Chef Boyardee pizza (another staple from my childhood) and dug out my old, original Laurel and Hardy mugs. I had a box of banana Twinkies that I had bought a while back and was keeping for a special occasion. I wanted to approximate the sights, smells and tastes of those wonderful days in 1974. But overall I’d have to rate my “time travel” experience a C-. While the Chef Boyardee pizza is fantastic, it wasn’t the same as Lu’s. My banana Twinkies had hardened over time and were inedible. The Diet Pepsi in my Stan Laurel mug didn’t have quite the same impact as it did back then. I considered using regular Pepsi, but it’s too syrupy and sweet for my current tastes. Though the popcorn I popped was good, it wasn’t the same either. Luckily, the two films I watched (“Brats” and “Hog Wild”) were from the new “Definitive Restorations” Blu Ray, and they were stunning! The images were so clear in some instances that you could see the weave on Laurel and Hardy’s jackets! Oh well, it was worth a try. I’ll probably do my own version of “Laurel and Hardy Theatre” again in the future, as there are several more films on the disc I want to see, but I won’t hope to achieve any “time travel” affectations the next time. Sadly, I think those good old days are gone for good.

Sunday the 2nd – AC IS KO! – Right around noon I woke up feeling very hot. I was wondering what had happened to my air conditioning. A few months ago I spent a great deal of money on a new motor and wheel assembly, but even though the AC’s motor was running, nothing was coming out of the vents. UGH! I called my trusty AC guy Pete, apologized for bugging him on a Sunday, and told him my problem. Normally if the AC has frozen up, the motor will still be blowing air, but the air will be warm. But this was a different problem. Pete suggested turning off the AC for three hours and calling him back before I turned it back on. Even though I replaced a motor a few months ago, Pete informed me that there are THREE motors in my system, and perhaps one of THOSE had gone out now. Immediately I went downstairs to the garage and dug out my portable AC unit, probably the best investment I’ve ever made! I set it up in the living room and napped on the couch. Later I called Pete and he had me turn the AC back on. It was working perfectly and blowing lots of cold air. What the heck? I told him I’d call him on Monday if I needed further assistance and he said he’d come out to have a look. Later I met my friend Sara for dinner. I was in the mood to sit in my car at Bob’s Big Boy and have a salad while I listened to Sunday Night 70’s on my AM radio, but Sara misunderstood my text and met me at Paty’s instead. So I headed over there instead. I went home and did some work, recorded my auditions, reconciled my receipts with my bank accounts, paid some bills, made my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad (on Sunday!) and watched “Space 1999” before bed. Unlike the first several episodes of the second season, they get more watchable as I’m getting deeper into the season. The heatwave was starting to subside, making way for more reasonable temps as we get into the new week. GREAT NEWS! I prefer the hot weather to cold weather, but I like to have my AC in top top shape during those glorious summer days! And my pets like it better too!

And how was YOUR week??!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Lots of fun with my creepy Wally smile mask!

Officer Mark took this great picture of my new Green Grover, with the blue Grover I made back in 1980.

Seriously, what is it with cats and bags?

Though I usually have curtains over the Muppet display cases in my Tranquility Zone, so they don’t get faded by the sunlight, I took the curtains off to get some great shots of them with natural lighting. Enjoy!