October 13 – October 20 (2025)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Jazwares is coming out with some really cool “Star Trek” original series uniforms for kids. WHERE WERE THESE WHEN I WAS A KID???!! Love them!

While listening to an old “American Top 40 with Casey Kasem” radio show with my buddy Maguire this past weekend, we both enjoyed listening to Billy Ocean’s 1976 hit “Love Really Hurts Without You.” I’ve always liked its groovy “Motown” vibe, and it sounded extra good being introduced by the amazing Casey Kasem. Good memories!

Monday the 13th – COLUMBUS DAY! – In anticipation of a very busy week, I gave myself permission to lay around all day and relax. I had dinner with my friend Sara Raftery at Ernie’s Taco House, and then I went back home to do some work. I napped for a little bit and woke up to the delicious sounds of rain outside. It’s going to be very wet over the next few days. By the time my usual WOG (walk/jog) time came around, it was raining pretty hard. So I had to take the night off. I recorded a bunch of auditions, and then wrote Wally’s Week. The hypnotic sound of the rain lulled me into a series of naps, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Tuesday the 14th – THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN! – As I prepared for my quick trip to South Dakota this Thursday, I did some various things around the house. Since it had been raining pretty steadily, I figured it was that time of year to put the warm bulbs in my bathroom vanity area. In the summer I have LEDs in the sockets to keep things cool. But in the winter months I like the warmth that the incandescent bulbs provide – so I swap them out. I also put the electric blanket on my bed, which will be a welcome addition from here on out! I recorded a ton of auditions, scanned some checks for a deposit, and then took my nightly WOG. It was chilly out! It was the first time I added my extra jacket and wool hat! I also decided not to spend any time outside in the anti-gravity chair. MUCH too cold! I went back inside to finish up some work, and then I made a salad and watched a few more episodes of “Tiger and Bunny” from season 2. What a great show!

Wednesday the 15th –THE COUNTDOWN IS ON! – After doing a little work around the house, I drove to the bank to make my monthly deposits. Then I hit Jersey Mike’s to get a sandwich and headed home to do some more prep work for my upcoming trip to South Dakota to check in on my family. My seamstress Maggie and her fiancé Jeff stopped by with the custom puppet they made for my grandkids. While digging through my storage stuff during the week I couldn’t park my car in my garage (because our driveways were being repaved) I found an unfinished puppet head and a puppet body. I asked Maggie to take those and throw something together I could take to the kids when I visited them – a custom-built puppet of their very own! When she brought it over I suggested a few tiny upgrades, so I got out my sewing kit and she added some cool fur cuffs to the hands. This will be a great puppet! I packed everything up and got ready to go. Seeing as how I had to be up so early to catch my flight I didn’t go on my WOG. I missed it terribly!

Thursday the 16th – SAFE AND ON-TIME! – Unfortunately I didn’t get to bed until 1am, and I had to be up at 6am to be at the airport. But I never sleep well the night before a flight, so my eyes shot open at 4am and I couldn’t get back to sleep no matter how hard I tried. So, I figured I’d get up and get at it. I drove to the airport at 7am, arrived at 7:30am, checked my car into the valet, checked in for my flight, went through security, and got some breakfast. I pulled my cap down over my eyes and slept all the way to Denver. I’ve never had trouble sleeping on a plane, and once my noise-canceling headphones go on, the toonz start up, and the cap goes down over my eyes, I’m out! When we landed I had to walk about 70 gates away to get to my connecting flight to Sioux Falls. Once there I got a sandwich and boarded the plane. There was a VERY loud woman sitting a few rows ahead of me and the entire plane could hear her. So I popped on my trusty noise-canceling headphones, cranked the toonz, and ate my sandwich. We arrived in Sioux Falls a few minutes earlier than expected, and as I always say – the only two things I expect out of a flight are for them to be “safe” and “on-time!” The day’s travel went swimmingly! While I waited for the luggage to hit the carousel I went to the car rental counter and got my vehicle. They asked, “Is a Jeep Wrangler OK?” Not thinking I said, “Sure.” I had never driven a Wrangler before and it was…different. It sure looked cool though. After I got my luggage I headed to the hotel to check into my room. First it was a quick stop at Walmart to pick up some supplies. I found a wonderful, oversized Popeye mask! I’m not sure how I’m going to get it home, but I grabbed one anyway. I got to the Fry’n Pan and spotted my sisters and dad eating at a table by the window. So since it’s almost Halloween, I put on the Popeye mask and stared at them through the window. The whole restaurant got quite a charge out of it. When I went inside to sit down, one of the servers brought over a cup of spinach and said, “Here, you might need this.” Hilarious! I had a fun dinner with my dad and sisters and brother-in-law Roger. After a hearty Midwest meal of a hot roast beef sandwich, I headed back to the room to turn in.

Friday the 17th – FUN AND FAMILY! – It was a rough night, as I kept waking up with an intense pain in the heel of my right foot. I figured I must have pinched a nerve at some point – either sleeping on the plane, or perhaps in the unfamiliar hotel bed. I did some stretching exercises to try and unpinch the nerve and tried to get back to sleep. I got up shortly after noon and went to pick up dad. We had lunch at Arby’s, because he loves the cherry turnovers there. He said he actually likes Arby’s quite a bit, but hardly ever went because my mom didn’t care for it. But now that he’s on his own, he can hit Arby’s anytime. Plus, there’s one just a half mile from his house. He and I drove out to the opposite end of town to attend a home show put on by one of the local TV stations. KELO-TV has been an institution in Sioux Falls for decades, and when I worked in radio in Sioux Falls it was on KELO radio. When I came to Sioux Falls last June and we did the Voices Against Cancer event, I was interviewed for KELO TV by a couple of delightful people named Mitchell and Ashley. Well, there they were again…at the home show. It was great to see them again. It was also really nice to see a tribute to the old kid’s show I used to love called Captain 11. They had a small electrical board of switches that was similar to the one Captain 11 had in his studio. If it was your birthday he’d let you “flick your favorite colored jewel” and turn on the cartoon! My daughter Lacey had texted me earlier in the morning that she had to say goodbye to her 17 year old cat Lily the night before, so she was very, very sad. While I was at the home show I found a wood worker who specialized in on-site engraving. So I had him engrave a small plaque in memory of Lily that I could give to Lacey. Dad and I found my sister Bonnie and her husband Roger at the show. They have a candle and deodorizer business called Aroma Dakota and they had a table at the show selling their wares. But it was about time to get dad back to his house so he could rest up for dinner. After dropping him off, I hit Walmart again to get a sympathy card for Lacey and a few other supplies. At 6 we all converged at a restaurant called Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner. Lacey and her family would be there, as well as my dad, and my pals Smith and Maguire. Even though Lacey’s family were still a bit glum about losing their friend Lily, we tried to make the best of it and keep it light. It ended up being fairly fun. After dinner I had Lacey and her gang meet me at my hotel so I could give the kids their Halloween gifts. In addition to some gifts I bought for them at the recent Son of Monsterpalooza convention, I also gave them their custom-built puppet “The Monster Who Lives Next Door.” They loved it! My grandson Devin particularly liked him and walked around the hotel lobby with him. Since the kids were going to come over to the hotel and swim on Saturday, they wanted to check out the pool area. As we sat in the pool area, Devin continued working the monster puppet. Soon he had an audience of admiring young ladies his age who stood in the pool and watched him manipulate it. I leaned over and said, “See, the chicks dig puppets.” He solemnly replied, “I have a girlfriend.” Pretty slick for a 12 year old dude! After they left I got the craving for movie theater popcorn, so I drove a half mile down the road to the Cinemark and walked in. I saw they had the new Michael Myers collectible popcorn buckets! Not only did I want one for myself, but my pal Maguire would love this! I picked a few up, got a bag of popcorn (with extra butter) and headed back to my room. YUM! What a great day!

Saturday the 18th – FRIENDS – FAMILY – FANTASTIC! – In the afternoon the grandkids came over to swim in the hotel pool, while I sat in the adjoining workout room chatting with my son-in-law Andrew. My old pal Dave Baumeister stopped by as well and we all had a great chat. The kids loved swimming, but had worked up quite an appetite. So they dried off and headed home to have dinner and a commemorative evening in tribute to their late cat Lily. Later my pal Maguire came to the hotel so we could drive over to dinner and meet our pal Smith at the Barrel House – a restaurant on the opposite side of town. While we drove in the Wrangler I played segments of an old “American Top 40” radio show from May of 1976. I have several of these old shows in my collection, so I ripped one to MP3 so we could give it a listen and remember how great it was listening to the host Casey Kasem count down all the hits of the week from #40 to #1. Good memories. My sister Bonnie and brother-in-law Roger also joined us for dinner and we had a great time. When we finished Maguire and I drove out to Smith’s house which was out in the country, just over the Iowa border. Once we got out of town it got darker and darker, and I’m glad Maguire knew where we were going! When I got out of the car in Smith’s driveway he said, “Look up at the sky.” It was filled with gorgeous stars! Stunning! We were far enough out of town that the dark environment really let us get a full view of the magnificence of the night sky! I even saw the Milky Way! WOW! But as nice as the sky was, it was pretty chilly. So we went inside. We had fully intended to watch a Blu-ray movie that I had brought along called “Tunnelvision.” It was just recently remastered and restored and released on Blu-ray. It was a movie that Maguire and I used to rent on VHS back in the old days, and it’s a movie we still quote today! It’s absolutely hysterical, and it features a lot of actors who went on to be stars later. But Smith popped the disc into his Blu-ray player and it wouldn’t play. It just said “Can’t play disc.” He put in another Blu-ray disc to make sure it was working, but the same error message came up. The exact same thing happened to my Blu-ray player a few months ago! So apparently these machines last for about 10 years, and then they’re designed to go kaput! Planned obsolescence, I think they call it. (The next night Maguire tried his Blu-ray player and it did the same thing. Odd) But Smith, Maguire and I had a lot of fun anyway listening to toonz and chatting. We probably ended up having more fun just sitting around talking than we would have had watching a movie anyway. The drive back to the hotel was interesting. The first part was down a dark, dirt road – and then we hit street closures. I’m sure glad Maguire knew where we were going, because I would have been totally lost out there! After I dropped Maguire off at his car I headed to Boss’ Pizza to pick up a pizza to go. Then I headed back to my room and enjoyed a late-night snack!

Sunday the 19th – FALL HAS FALLEN! – A gorgeous, crisp, sunny fall day greeted me when my pal Dave Baumeister came to the hotel. It was pretty much the quintessential Midwestern fall day. We walked over to the DQ that was in the area to have lunch, but we were shocked to find out that they no longer had footlong chili dogs! Oh well. We chatted for a bit, and then Dave decided it was such a nice day he was going to go mow his lawn. I headed over to FedEx to ship some photos and artwork (and the Popeye mask!) back to my house. There was no way I could get these items in my luggage without them getting damaged. So they should be in L.A. by next Friday. I headed back to the room to take a quick nap, and then I met Lacey and her family for pizza. As we sat around I got some paper and pens and had the grandkids draw what they were going to be for Halloween. Now I have original artwork from each of my grandkids! Sweet! When we finished eating we all said our goodbyes and hurried to our cars because it was darn chilly! I got back to the room and started packing up for my exit on Monday. What a great trip!

Monday the 20th – HEY IT’S GOOD TO BE BACK HOME AGAIN! – I packed up some last-minute things and hauled everything to my car. I checked out of my room, gassed up the car, and went over to the Fry’n Pan to meet my dad and Lacey for breakfast before I split town. It sure was nice having a meal with my daughter and my dad. I sure wish mom could have been there too. But I’m so happy with the way things are now. It’s really great to have Lacey (and her wonderful family) back in my life! I drove to the airport, checked in for my flight, dropped my luggage, turned the rental car back in, and headed up to go through security. The TSA guy looked at me and said, “You look really familiar. Why do you look so familiar?” I said, “I dunno. I’m a Voice Actor.” He asked, “Which one?” I said, “Wally…Wingert.” He said, “Wow! What are you doing here?” I told him I used to live there and come back from time to time to visit family. He said his name was Brandon, so I thanked him and went on my way. As is my prayer every time I fly, I always hope for things to be safe and on-time. So far so good. We left Sioux Falls right on time headed for Denver. I had a window seat on the flight so I could look out over the large, puffy, billowy clouds. It had been pretty overcast and dreary in Sioux Falls when I left, but when you get above the clouds all your perspective changes. Amazing. We got to Denver on time, and I found my next gate, which thankfully was only about 25 gates away. I had time to get a pizza and wolf it down before we boarded the flight for L.A. But once I got the headphones on and my cap pulled down over my eyes, I nodded off for the majority of the flight. Once again I had a window seat, so I opened the window and looked out over the desert terrain of the eastern part of California. Eventually we got into civilization, and were nearing home. We touched down a few minutes early before our appointed landing time of 5:20pm. Overall the entire weekend was wonderful – safe and on time. And you can’t ask for much more than that. I got back home, saw Spook and gave him some cuddles and unpacked. I’ve got a fairly busy week coming up, and a session early the next morning, so I got set up for that. I also wrote Wally’s Week and took my WOG again (it was good to be back at it!) and spent a brief time in the anti-grav char outside. A couple of little raccoon friends wandered up to me, and then they saw me move and took off running. Cute! As nice as it is to go visiting, it’s also really nice to get back home again.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK