June 05 – June 11 (2023) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

When I saw this bumper sticker in a friend’s Instagram post I just had to grab a screenshot. If anyone actually has one of these bumper stickers I’ll pay handsomely for it!

When the album “The Long Run” by the Eagles came out in 1979 my world stopped. This album was amazing. One of my favorite tracks was Joe Walsh’s “In The City.” It still sounds great to this very day!

Monday the 5th – NAPATHON! – Still a bit tired from the amazing Monsterpalooza weekend, I slept a LOT! I got up mid-day to answer some emails, but then by early evening I was back in bed. I did get up for a late dinner with my pal Chris Malmin, and to give him a wonderful black light KISS poster I bought at the convention. I did a little grocery shopping and then came home to nap again. I got up later to do auditions, write Wally’s Week, and scan some checks for a deposit.

Tuesday the 6th – THOSE AREN’T SORE MUSCLES! – The weather continued its long run of cold, windy, and gloomy conditions (I’m getting quite sick of it!) and even though I had things to do, I just felt like staying inside. I wanted to walk to the bank but my body was too sore. I felt like I walked about 50 miles over the course of the weekend and with all of the fun I had with Super Grover, I’m sure I was using muscles in my body that I don’t usually use. My friend Emily and I had dinner at Little Toni’s later in the evening, and then I went home to take some Advil and nap. I woke up from my nap with a case of the chills, which I thought was odd. I didn’t have any other symptoms of any sort of infection. Then I started realizing that maybe my sore body wasn’t because of all the activity at the convention, maybe I was coming down with something! Then I started feeling the symptoms of a UTI; a urinary tract infection. Great. I called my doctor’s nurse around 4am and left a message to try and get an appointment. Something other than standard muscle fatigue was going on!

Wednesday the 7th – YOU. TEE. EYE! – My doctor’s office called back after they got into the office at 9 and gave me an appointment for 11:30 that morning. Even though my body was aching fairly badly I headed in. They needed me to come in person to get a sample to see what was going on. As I sat in the waiting room I decided to do my 10 and 10 for 10, as I’m calling it. They’re deep breathing exercises that are supposed to lower my blood pressure, at least according to my research. I breathe in for the count of 10, swallow, and breathe out for the count of 10. And I do this for 10 minutes. Even breathing patterns like this are supposed to do wonders for the heartbeat and blood pressure. But when I went in so they could take my vitals I was a little out of it. The fact that I had been awake for a while, and dealing with severe body aches put me a bit out of my head. So when I got the blood pressure reading of 101/87 I immediately started stressing, thinking that it was a high reading. Truth be told, it’s probably the best blood pressure reading I’ve had in a long time. I’m sure it was because of the breathing exercises. He took it again, and of course it went higher because I was now stressing about it. It wasn’t until several minutes later that I realized, “Hey! That reading was actually pretty darn good!” But because of the pains I was experiencing I was a bit out of my mind. They tested my sample and sure enough, there was an infection. So, my body aches WEREN’T because of being over active during the weekend. The infection was most likely because I didn’t drink enough fluids during the convention. When I’m signing at a convention I have stuff to drink at my table all day. But when I’m at a convention to have fun I forget to get the necessary fluids. The doctor phoned in a prescription and I was out the door. I headed to the bank to make some deposits, and then I went to CVS to get my antibiotics. There were lots of directions with this particular antibiotic so I’d have to be very careful to take it correctly. I got home and napped, and got up later to check emails and the news. I took an antibiotic and a pain pill and went to bed. Later I did my nightly auditions, reheated some Little Toni’s spaghetti from the other night, and watched a few episodes of “The Lone Ranger” followed by a few episodes of “Have Gun – Will Travel.” LESSON LEARNED about future convention activity! I won’t make that mistake again!

Thursday the 8th – BETTER ALREADY! – Conditions were improving already and I was feeling much better. I rested most of the day, but I did have the energy to go out into the garage and start organizing some things to be stored in bins. I saw a lot of great neighborhood dogs who walked by my garage. I went inside, showered up and napped for a bit. I didn’t want to overdo it. I got up later for auditions, worked around the house, and with the maids coming on Friday, I did some cleaning and organizing. I laid on the couch for a little bit and Spook made himself at home on my chest. I got up and made a salad and watched a few episodes of “The Lone Ranger.” But the “Have Gun – Will Travel” episodes on the H&I network were amazing! The first one starred an actress whose work I’ve enjoyed since I was a kid, Jeanette Nolan. She was one of those actresses who played much older characters even when she was young. I most remember her in the role of “Dirty Sally” on the “Gunsmoke” TV series. She was the town homeless woman who had very few possessions. In fact the only friend she had was her old mule named Worthless. I still remember to this day the episode where Worthless was stuck in the mud (or was it quicksand?) and was facing certain death. Watching Jeanette Nolan as Dirty Sally tearfully cry out “Worthless! Worthless!” as she watched her only friend in the world prepare to perish still brings a tear to my eye to this day. She was an amazing actress. And now getting to watch her in an episode with Richard Boone (another top-notch actor) was pure joy. But the second episode starred a young Robert Blake as a crazy boy bent on getting revenge against those who murdered his father. Say what you want about Robert Blake’s personal life and all of his foibles and personal drama, but he was a damned good actor whose work I’ve always enjoyed. The amazing Hari Rhodes was also in that episode. It sure is fun sitting back and watching wonderful actors display their craft!

Friday the 9th – NOT A DREAM AS MUCH AS AN EXPERIENCE! – Though I hadn’t slept very long, I got up to let the maids in to begin cleaning Planet Wallywood. When they finished I continued resting. I was feeling much better already, but I didn’t want to push it. Once a month my pal Joe and I meet up with our friend Dr. Patt for dinner at the Smoke House. Tonight was our monthly outing and it’s never disappointing. It’s a great pleasure to spend time with interesting people over amazing food. After dinner I decided to go to my auxiliary parking and get the Gran Torino out for a spin. It started up nicely and off we went! I got back home and did some work, and then grabbed a nap. I had an incredible dream that included my dog Roxy. It’s basically the dream I had been waiting to have, where she looked healthy and happy. If you’re interested in what happened in this vivid dream, I recounted it in writing and you can read it here. If you’re not interested, you can just skip past the italicized section.

It was night time, and I was walking along a road. To the left of me were huge, beautiful, snow-covered mountains. Below the road to the right of me were about four adjoined resort cabins. Snow blanketed everything on the plains below, and while it was stunning to see, it wasn’t cold at all. I walked into the end cabin closest to me (which I understood to be my cabin) and noticed that the front door was wide open.

I didn’t know if I had left the cabin door open when I left, or if there might have been a break-in while I was away. Suspecting there might be an intruder in the cabin I moved cautiously through the rooms shouting, “I have a gun and I won’t hesitate to use it.” Even though I didn’t have a gun I sounded convincing.

The layout of the cabin was modest but wonderful. When you entered through the front door, immediately to the right was the living room. To the left was the kitchen. As I moved through the kitchen looking for the intruder, there was a laundry room with a washer and dryer. I turned to the right to circle around the cabin and moved past the bathroom. I continued moving right and there was the bedroom.

On a desk in the bedroom were my Sig Sauer P238 gun, my wallet, my phone, my cash, and other stuff. It was then clear to me that there wasn’t any intruder in the house. I grabbed my gun and I moved back to the bathroom to enjoy the view through a large, square picture window.

The view out the window was breath-taking. In the distance were more large, snow-covered mountains. The plains that led up to that mountain range were populated solely by one single, square cabin. On the far side of the cabin, the snow on the ground beneath it was changing colors rapidly. I figured that on the opposite side of that cabin there was most likely a large picture window, and the person in the cabin was watching television. As the television flickered it cast dancing colors on the snowy ground.

At that moment I heard a piece of a report on the radio about “the blizzard.” It made sense that a blizzard most likely was responsible for all of the freshly fallen snow. I decided to go get my camera to snap a few pictures through the bathroom window to send to my parents of this gorgeous, picturesque landscape.

As I moved back to the kitchen area, I saw a tall blonde woman, about 26 years old, holding bags of food and standing in my kitchen. Thinking she might be the intruder I aimed my gun at her and she was startled. Realizing she was no threat, I de-cocked the hammer and lowered the gun, putting her at ease.

She said she had a food delivery from a restaurant called Varona. I told her it wasn’t mine and she had the wrong cabin. She gave an address and asked if that was my address. I told her I had just moved in and I wasn’t quite sure what the address was, but the name of the restaurant didn’t sound like something I would order from. But maybe I would see her later.

Just then I looked to the right, out the front door of the cabin, and I saw an older (not old) woman with dark hair walking Roxy on a leash. Roxy was young and fit, and very happy to see me. Roxy bounded up the stairs to the cabin without any problem. I told the delivery girl, “Look! It’s my doggie!” I bent down to kiss and pet Roxy. I could feel her fur in my hands and on my face. It was very, very real.

As I petted her I could feel the tears forming in my eyes. Many thoughts rushed simultaneously into my mind; Who was the lady with Roxy? I thought Roxy had passed away. Why was she here now? Why did I give Roxy to the lady when Roxy seemed perfectly healthy?

As I continued petting Roxy I looked up with tears in my eyes and saw the delivery girl, my friend James, and the lady holding Roxy’s leash.

Then, I woke up.

Suffice to say, it was so much more than a standard dream. It was an “experience” in vivid color, and I’ll never forget it. But when I woke up I wasn’t sad, but happy. Happy that Roxy seemed to be well taken care of, wherever she was. I worked the rest of the night around the house, and I made a little puppet stand for my Grover replica Muppet. Until I can get the suspension rig created for him to fly high above in my living room, he’ll have to stay on his little stand in the kitchen. In fact, it looked so good, I snapped a picture of Grover with Cookie Monster on my kitchen table.

Saturday the 10th – WALKIN’ AGAIN! – It was that time again; time to get a touch up on my color. So I walked over to my stylist Andie’s shop. The day was cool and cloudy, so since I was feeling much better, I took the opportunity to walk all the way over to the post office to mail off some bills. It felt good to be out walking again! I stopped at the store to get some veggies for my salads, and then headed home. I lounged around the house, did some work, and grabbed a short nap. I got up later to record an audition, and go over a script for an animated film that I’d be working on this week. Though the producers had isolated my lines for me, I wanted to see how they fit within the context of the narrative in the script. I did some more detail work on Grover, snipping away little pieces of long fur on his face to make him look more streamlined. Then I got ready for my monthly edition of “Laurel and Hardy Theatre.” Since I was gone for Monsterpalooza last weekend I didn’t get a chance to do it. This film was called “Nothing But Trouble” and it’s the third-to-the-last feature film they made. It wasn’t a great film, but apparently it was their highest grossing film ever. It was released in 1944 and because people were suffering from WWII fatigue they were seeking escapism of all sorts, and this film provided that release. Hard to believe that one year later the war would be over, and in a little more than 20 years Stan Laurel would be dead. Even though it wasn’t a great film, it still was wonderful seeing “The Boys” in action.

Sunday the 11th – NO ACCIDENTS IN LIFE! – When I got up late in the day I arranged with my buddy Dave Baumeister to have dinner. Dave is one of my oldest friends who lives in Sioux Falls, and he had come to town the night before to spend a week in L.A. hanging out with his son Sean (and my godson) and me. As I pulled into the Barone’s parking lot I saw a familiar face going in. It was Voice Director Keythe Farley! He saw my Torino and said, “What a great birthday gift for me!” Apparently he was gathering with his family for a birthday celebration. I saw Dave arrive with his son Sean and his girlfriend Cat, and we went inside to get our table. When I walked in and looked over at Keythe’s table, I saw my old pal Maile Flanagen (the voice of Naruto) talking to Keythe. Sean and Cat are HUGE Naruto fans, and I even had Maile sign some stuff for Sean when he was a little boy! And Maile even remembered that! They enjoyed meeting the voice of Naruto, and Maile had fond memories of being in Sioux Falls last year for the Voices Against Cancer event! What a great set of coincidences, even though I don’t believe in them. We were soon joined by our pal Chris Malmin, and Dave, Chris and I had a great time talking about the old days in Sioux Falls! After a great dinner I came home to relax and prep for three HUGE Voice Over sessions I’d have this week!

And how was YOUR week!!??

PIX FROM THE WEEK