May 03 – May 09 (2021) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

They’ve found a frog that looks like Kermit! Fantastic!

Since it was my birthday week, I’m going to do TWO songs this time! I heard them both on KWXY-AM 1340 in Palm Springs recently and I’ve been humming them incessantly. First, “Yesterday When I Was Young” by Roy Clark held particular poignancy for me this week. And Nilsson’s “I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City” sounded REALLY good on the radio!

Yesterday When I Was Young

I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City

Monday the 3rd – MOBILE ROXY! – Because of her advanced age, Roxy is no longer able to withstand the long time spent in a cage waiting to get groomed, and then the extended time spent standing while she’s getting bathed and groomed. So the next option is to get her a mobile groomer. It’s what I had to do in the final years of Sassie’s life back in 2010 and 2011. In a week Roxy will be 13 years old and she’s in pretty good shape otherwise. A mobile groomer will be able to get to her immediately upon arrival, so that will cut down on the standing around aspect. While I waited for Detail Dog to arrive, I sprayed primer on the two new Frankie Christoween ornaments that I got from my effects guy Jim Ojala last week. When they dried, I sprayed on the first coat of the base paint. The groomer arrived and took her into the mobile unit to get bathed. I sprayed the second coat on to the ornaments and then went inside to do some work while Roxy was pampered. About three hours later she was done and looked fantastic. While it was fairly costly, she looked amazing! A great pre-birthday present! I walked over to the local hardware store to buy more hexagon bolts for the Frankie ornaments, and a few other items. I got a sub at Subway and then headed home. I had a ton of auditions to do, I typed out Wally’s Week and did some work around the house. Michelle would normally be over on Monday and Tuesday (her days off from her job) but she’s out of town for a funeral all week. She’ll join me in Palm Springs this weekend when she returns to help celebrate my birthday. I made a salad and watched a few more “Lone Ranger” episodes. I thought I might be getting to the end of the first season, but I was thinking of that show in “modern” TV series terms. Since this show was broadcast during the very first years of TV’s existence (1949/1950) they didn’t know about “reruns” yet. So instead of a normal season of 26 episodes, they did a full run of 52 episodes! One for each week of the year! WOW! So I have lots more episodes to watch! Nice!

Tuesday the 4th – READY FOR VACATION! – The next shipment of Christoween books was waiting for me at my mailbox, so I swung by to get them. I’ll be posting a few book and Stalking sets for sale on my website very soon. While I was at my box, I went over to Paty’s to get a delicious salad. I picked up a few grocery items in anticipation of my upcoming birthday trip to Palm Springs, and then headed home. I’ve done a fair amount of videos since I joined the Cameo website a few years ago. Normally, my most requested character is the Riddler, but I never, ever thought I would get a request for a character I did many years ago for a chain of stores called HH Gregg. For their TV commercials, I voiced an animated character called HH, who was a spunky, animated newspaper circular that promoted the latest sales. But apparently the character has a small fanbase, whether it be a genuine one, or a love-to-hate fanbase. In any event, I was happy to do the Cameo video for the fan. I scanned some checks for a bank deposit and did some work on the computer before bed.

Wednesday the 5th – GET CRACKIN’ AND GET PACKIN’! – Before I speed off to Palm Springs for the weekend, I had several errands to run. And since it was a gorgeous day, I decided to lace up my walking shoes and hit the road. I walked over to Kit Kraft to buy some more leather cord for the Christoween ornaments I’m putting together. Then I walked over to the bank and dropped off some deposits. I stopped by the grocery store to pick some roasted chicken for Roxy’s dinner for the weekend. I dropped by the local cigar store and picked up a few cigars for the weeks to come. I found out that the owner almost died from the Wu-Flu in January! I dropped by Subway on the way home and got a tuna sub for lunch, and then went home to work on the computer for a while. I did my nightly auditions, filled out all the paperwork for another bit I did for the “Ellen” show that aired, and then packed up a few items for my trip to Palm Springs.

Thursday the 6th – 60?! REALLY?! – I slept in until late afternoon. When I got up I walked over to Enterprise to get my rental SUV for my weekend trip to the desert. The gal who rented me the SUV told me that Enterprise was originally named for the starship Enterprise when “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry started the company. Though I thought that sounded a little too good to be true. (Come to find out it was. After doing some of my own research I found out it’s not true. According to Wikipedia, Enterprise was started by Jack C. Taylor in 1957 and named after the Enterprise aircraft carrier used in World War 2, the ship upon which Mr. Taylor served.) I packed up the Jeep Compass with all of my stuff, recorded my nightly auditions, got a Domino’s pizza, and then filled out some paperwork for a new, ongoing video game gig that I’ll have throughout the summer. My house sitter arrived around 8:30 and Roxy and I hit the road around 9:15 after getting the gas tank filled up. By 10:45 we arrived in Palm Springs and I turned on my favorite desert AM radio station KYXY. On my birthday, at the start of my birthday vacation weekend, the song that played was Roy Clark’s “Yesterday When I Was Young.” WILD! Of all the strange coincidences! But then again, I don’t really believe in coincidences. It’s a great song! I tried calling the Palm Springs Denny’s to place my usual order, which is tradition on my first night in Palm Springs. But they didn’t answer. That isn’t uncommon for Denny’s, so I figured I’d just stop by and place my order in person. But they were closed for maintenance! Bummer! I got to the Hyatt and checked in, and Roxy and I got settled. I got everything set up and watched stars on the balcony while listening to my special Palm Springs playlist. A new, ongoing gig throughout the summer, a Domino’s pizza, and a nice night time drive through the desert for relaxation in Palm Springs – all in all, a great birthday!

Friday the 7th – SEEING SHIRLEY! – My 94 year old ‘adopted grandma’ Shirley, who has been living in Palm Desert in a wonderful assisted living center since October, was excited to see Roxy and I once we got to the desert. So I drove over to take her to lunch. But the wait at Sherman’s Deli was about a half hour, and we were hungry. So we went next door to Papa Dan’s to get some Italian food. Shirley mentioned that she hadn’t had REAL spaghetti in over a year! So I spoke with the management to make arrangements to deliver food to Shirley (she lives just down the block from the restaurant) and charge me for it. So when Shirley is craving spaghetti, she’ll call me, I’ll call Papa Dan’s and place the order, pay for it, and they’ll deliver it to her easy peasy! Then we drove into Palm Springs to get ice cream (I got a Dole Whip!), and then we went to my room to see Roxy. We hung out for a bit and chatted, and then we hit the road to get Shirley back to her home. We stopped at KFC on the way to get her a few pieces of chicken she could eat later. After I dropped her off I headed back to the hotel, grabbed a short nap, picked up a pizza from NYPD across the street, and watched stars from my balcony all night. It was gorgeous. And there were so many climbers on the mountain outside my room, their headlamps made the mountainside look like its own starscape! A hillside of stars! There were so many climbers it looked like it might have been a meeting of some sort of hiking club. It’s fascinating to watch them. They make it up the side of that mountain pretty quickly! I saw a few shooting stars, but one looked very strange. I know that there was supposed to be some Chinese space junk falling to the earth soon, and this could have been it. (I later found out that most of it fell into the Indian Ocean) Unlike a normal shooting star, which has a very short flair, this one stayed lit for quite a while on its descent. Just before it dipped out of sight behind the mountain, it turned into a bright orange flame! Some sort of junk was falling to earth, that’s for sure!

Saturday the 8th – CLAPPING FOR BIKINI BUTT?! – The music channel they play at the Palm Springs Hyatt is terrific! Lots of great tunes! There are a few tables between the bar and the pool that’s under a shady canopy. As Roxy and I were relaxing with a drink at the table, we’d see swimmers walking back and forth between the bar and the pool. When a particular great Hall & Oates song came on, I was patting Roxy’s butt to the beat of the music. (She likes it when I do that.) When I looked up I saw a girl in a bikini looking back at me smiling. At that moment we both realized what was going on. At first, SHE thought I was applauding her bikini-clad shape as she strolled by. The sound of my hands on Roxy’s hindquarters sounded to her like I was applauding her poolside strut. When she realized I was only patting my doggie’s butt to the beat of the music, and when I realized that SHE thought I was applauding her shapely backside, we both started laughing. I had been looking down at Roxy patting her hindquarters, and I never even noticed the girl. It was one of those things that would probably never happen again. Funny! Michelle arrived and joined us at the table, and we got a little snack. My birthday dinner wouldn’t be for another several hours yet, so we got something to hold us over. My pals Scott and Vickie arrived and came up to my room to hang out while I got cleaned up and ready to go get Shirley. We drove over to get Shirley in Palm Desert and then drove over to LG’s steakhouse to meet up with my friends James and Cynthia. I found a great parking spot a half block away (downtown Palm Springs was hopping and it was very crowded!) and pulled in. But I realized that I could move up just a bit more, so I could make a bit more room behind me for another car to possibly park. I didn’t want to be “that guy” who looked like he was taking up two parking spots, particularly given how busy it was downtown. But the Jeep Compass is designed very strangely. I started the car and the wheels wouldn’t move. It seemed like I had the parking brake on. Sure enough, it WAS on, and I had no idea how it got activated. Michelle did a quick search on her phone to see where the parking brake on a Jeep Compass was. Come to find out, the parking brake is just a little tab slightly below the gear shift. So it could easily be engaged by accident as you’re collecting your things to leave the vehicle. VERY poor design! As I was struggling to get the car reparked, I started drawing a crowd. I finally got the SUV situated in such a way that there was a goodly amount of room behind my car to allow another small vehicle room to park. I hope they all enjoyed the show. I’ll most likely never buy a Jeep, as that was just one of the many frustrating design flaws I discovered during the weekend. We sat down and ordered our food and chatted. There were two other tables in the room we were in. One of the servers brought in a huge tray of food and put the dishes down in front of a group of people at the first table. Then he realized he had made a mistake, and removed all of the dishes and put them back on the tray. Then he started toward OUR table with the same food. I was a bit weirded out that he had put the dishes on the table in front of the other group, had left it there for about a minute before he realized his mistake, and had to retrieve all of the food to bring it to another table. Was he going to give us the food that he just sat in front of other people? Call me neurotic, but this seemed icky to me. But the server took the food to the third table and gave it to them. They didn’t seem to complain at all. So this is a legendary steakhouse in Palm Springs and it’s NOT cheap to eat there. I would have thought that the serving staff might have been a bit more organized to prevent them from making such an odd mistake. It was very weird. They didn’t seem to be on their “A game” that evening. Maybe since the state just recently reopened restaurants for indoor dining, they’re still a little wobbly in their organizational procedures. But it seemed like a strange mistake for such a reputable restaurant. I dunno. Maybe it’s me. After dinner we took Shirley back home, and I came back to the room to watch stars on the balcony. It was fantastic, PERFECT weather!

Sunday the 9th – KWXY-AM 1340! – There were a few things Michelle and I wanted to pick up at Walmart, so we headed over there to do some shopping. After loading up on all sorts of goodies, we went over to KFC to get lunch and sit in the car, stare at the magnificent mountains before us, and watch the ground squirrels cavort around the desert terrain. The amazing KWXY-AM played some really great stuff! First, they played Nilsson’s “I Guess The Lord Must Be in New York City,” a song I’ve loved since I was a kid, and have NEVER heard on the radio…EVER! I also heard Brooke Benton’s “Rainy Night in Georgia,” another song I literally wore the grooves out of when I was a kid. This station is FANTASTIC! I also enjoyed hearing a lot of Louis Prima’s songs and I’m buying a CD of his greatest tunes when I return home. Later we took Shirley to a Mother’s Day dinner at Sherman’s Deli in Palm Desert. It was quiet, calm, peaceful, and wonderful. The weather was terrific! Michelle and I returned to the hotel and got ready to watch stars on the balcony. All was good until a lawnmower man on the golf course outside the hotel started mowing the green at 4am! Good grief!! More about this fabulous trip in next week’s Wally’s Week!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Here’s a shot of the animated character I did for the HH Gregg stores a few years ago. Oddly enough, during a web search for this mascot character, a fair amount of fanart of this character pops up! Wild!

Here’s a shot at my birthday dinner at LG’s Steakhouse in Palm Springs!

Michelle got me this custom-crafted VHS LED nightlight! Clever!

I’ve never been much of a “Revenge of the Fifth” guy. I’m more of a “Revenge of the Sixth” kinda guy. After all, sixth sounds more like Sith, and it’s only one letter difference!

I just love how companies are realizing the value of retro packaging on their products. The Doritos actually taste like the original Taco Flavored chips I loved as a kid. But even though the box art on Cap’n Cruch is retro, the cereal looks like it does today. But it’s very cool!