RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I was just talking about this amazing gum the other day. Mouth Full was truly that…a real mouth full! For a dime you would get a huge square chunk of sour apple gum that was amazing. My pal Chris and I used to walk downtown as kids, chewing our mouth full, and laughing so much that we we dripped sour apple gum juice onto our shirts. Good times!

Since I said goodbye to the amazing series “The Magician” I’ve been humming the very catchy theme. Enjoy!

 

Monday the 17th – PSYCHIC EXPERIENCE! – Since Roxy’s condition of advancing age has been weighing heavy on my mind lately, I decided to dig out the number of a well-known pet psychic I used a decade ago with my previous dog. I found her to be remarkably accurate back then, and consulting with her helped me enormously. She only asked about the breed and names of my pets…nothing else. She talked about Spook first. She said that Spook has been missing his sunshine. She asked if it had been smoggy here lately. I told her no, but the past week has been very overcast! So yes, Spook hasn’t gotten his sun time in lately! She said though he’s older, he’s still feeling good and not hurting; just a bit stiff. She said he’s still very young mentally. She said he’s been especially affectionate with me lately because he can sense that I’m stressed (most likely about Roxy). She said some more things, but everything she said was spot on! Then she moved to Roxy. The first thing she said blew me away. She said, “I’m not hearing much through Roxy. Is she losing her hearing?” I told her that she was almost totally deaf now. This is stunning, considering that the psychic had no idea how old my dog was. I never told her Roxy’s age. She said that Roxy is sleeping very deeply these days, and that she’s not in pain. She’s just stiff, old and slow, but still enjoying life. She said she’s contented and comfortable and not ready to go yet. I told her that it brought me comfort to hear she wasn’t in pain. She said some more stuff, and everything was remarkably accurate. That call gave me a real sense of relief about Roxy’s situation, given that I’m most concerned with Roxy experiencing pain. I took care of some more business around the house, and then walked to Enterprise to reserve my vehicle for this weekend’s trip to Palm Springs. I’m going to spend a few days away, and surprise my 95 year old adopted grandma Shirley! I went back home to do some work, take a nap, and then later record a ton of auditions. I typed out Wally’s Week, made a Tombstone pizza and watched another episode of “The Magician.”

Tuesday the 18th – GETTING IN THE MOOD! – At a certain time I was supposed to be available to meet up with a service tech who was going to install a valve in the toilet in the Puppet Room. But he texted me to cancel, saying he got called away on another job urgently. Right around the same time, I was supposed to meet with my “plant” lady who was going to dress up my little patch of flowers in front of my house. But she texted to say she got held up on another job. So I got up early for nothing. I made some calls, and then put Roxy in the Mustang and hauled her over to her vet’s. Because the anti-inflammation medication she’s on can sometimes affect a dog’s liver values, she has to be checked about every six months. But at the age of 14, even if it does affect her somewhat, what is the alternative? They can’t take her off the medication at this point. But I drove her over anyway. It’s another “summer’s last gasp” kind of day, as it was a lovely 91 degrees out. At the vet’s office Roxy was having trouble getting her footing on the office’s slick floors. So for the first time since I’ve had her, I made Roxy a “lap dog.” I pulled her up on my lap to comfort her. I held her front paws over my left wrist, and I held her back legs up with my right hand. I never considered her to be a lap dog, but there’s a first time for everything. The tech came to take her to the back room, took her blood, and brought her back. Easy peasy. We went home and had something to eat, I did some more work around the house, and got on the Vans website to design some custom Donnie Druthers Christoween Vans slip-ons! They turned out great and I can’t wait to see them! A friend sent me a link for the 1974 TV special “The Horror Hall of Fame” with Vincent Price. His guests were Frank Gorshin and John Astin. So let me get this straight, Egghead hosted a show and both Riddlers were his guests? The impact on my geekiness was considerable! It’s a great special and I fully recommend you watch it. Check it out on YouTube. I couldn’t stop smiling through the entire thing. I grabbed a nap and then got up later to do a ton of auditions. I did some writing, and then started packing early for the Palm Springs trip. Though I’m not leaving until Saturday, I wanted to do a little preemptive packing so I wasn’t running around like crazy at the last minute. Unfortunately the weather in Palm Springs looks like it’s going to be warm, but not hot. And cool at night. Bummer. I made some buffalo mac and watched the final “Magician” episode. Damn, I’m gonna miss this show! Every episode was amazing. Seriously, there wasn’t one bad episode.

Wednesday the 18th – JELL-O-RIFFIC! – It was one of those days where I just wanted to lounge around the house all day. I rested and relaxed, and had dinner with my pal Sara later at Paty’s. It was a gorgeous day and we had a wonderful dinner on the patio as the sun set. I came home to nap, and then got up later to do my nightly auditions. I did some work around the house and did some laundry. I compiled a list for my house sitter Emily to use this coming weekend while I’m out of town. When I was doing the prep for my procedure about a month ago, they told me it’s OK to eat certain colors of Jell-O during the prep process. I hadn’t had Jell-O in years, so I had to “rediscover” it a bit. While I was only allowed to eat orange and lime Jell-O during the prep process, it got me to head down the rabbit hole to see what other flavors of Jell-O existed. I found grape, peach and pineapple particularly appealing. I remember eating peach Jell-O out of Dixie Cups at “Weird Al” Yankovic’s house when I was his guest during my visit to L.A. back in 1986. So I spent the evening making a bunch of Jell-O to start sampling the flavors. I made a few barbecues and started in on “The Lone Ranger” season four. Clayton Moore is back, baby! And it’s terrific!

Thursday the 19th – MY GODSON AND AN OLD BUDDY! – The day flew by as I did some work around the house waiting for a call from my old buddy Dave Baumeister that he and his son Sean (my Godson) had made it to town. Sean is moving to L.A. and Dave drove along with him to assist in the transition. He called in the early evening to let me know they got in and settled and they were ready for dinner. I called my pal Chris Malmin (another South Dakota buddy) and we all met at Lancer’s for a great, fun dinner. I hit Walmart to pick up some supplies for my upcoming trip. I also hit Target to pick up a few more groceries. It’s funny that, in order to get everything on my list, I have to go to several different stores. It would be great if I could find “one-stop-shopping” somewhere. I also drove thru the Krispy Kreme drive thru to pick up some more of those delicious cream-filled Halloween donuts! I got home to unload the groceries, and in order to come up the stairs from the garage to bring the groceries in, I had to remove the safety gate that keeps Roxy from making a wrong move and tumbling down the stairs. Sure enough, as I had my hands filled with groceries I heard a THUMPETY-THUMP-THUMP. Roxy had taken a misstep and had tumbled down the first four stairs! I guess when I bring groceries in from now on I need to make sure she stays in her bed somehow. When I picked her up to carry her back upstairs her heart was beating really fast! Perhaps she now knows that she should stay away from that area! Later I edited together the group of Aspiring Voice Actor submissions I received for this week’s Christoween snippet. I recorded my nightly auditions, made a salad and watched more “Lone Ranger” episodes.

Friday the 21st – ALMOST FOUR DECADES! – Dave helped my Godson Sean get settled into his new place, and they called me later to grab dinner. I called our friend Chris to meet us at Ernie’s Taco House, and we all had a great time at dinner. When we finished Dave and Chris came over to my house and we chatted about the old days until 1 in the morning! We all share some amazing experiences dating back to 1985 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota! We had a great time reminiscing and telling stories. Dave’s flight back to South Dakota leaves first thing Saturday morning, so he stayed in Planet Wallywood for Friday night so I could run him to the airport in the morning. I did some work around the house and then hit the hay for a VERY busy Saturday!

Saturday the 22nd – THE CHILLY, CHILLY DESERT! – In the morning when I got up, Dave was already up and petting Roxy and Spook. He and I walked over to Roxy’s vet to pick up her refilled prescription. Her blood work came back and her liver values looked amazing! The doctor was VERY happy. Her regular medication wasn’t adversely affecting her at all! After we got her pills, we walked over to Enterprise before they closed at noon to pick up my rental for Palm Springs. Once again, I got a Nissan Rogue. I’ve rented these many times in the past and I find them to be perfectly suitable for my needs. We packed Dave’s stuff into the car and I drove him to the airport. It was a very short visit, but we made the most of it. I got some groceries on the way home, and then did some last minute packing. My house sitter arrived around 3:30 and I packed up and got ready to leave. It took me about 2.5 hours to get to Palm Springs, and it was nice driving east with the sunset over my shoulder! It was quite a different experience than my usual Palm Springs drive. The traffic was stop and go in places, and I completely missed the 111 freeway to head into Palm Springs. They have construction going on at that off-ramp, and even though I was in the far right lane anticipating the turn, I ended up missing it. I was behind a large truck that was blocking the sign that informs drivers who want to access the 111 to prepare for a split freeway. I didn’t get in the right lane and blew right past it! Then I got lost on the 62 freeway for a while, but I found my way back on the 10 and headed to the other Palm Spring off-ramp about 5 miles up the road. Unlike my usual trips to Palm Springs, this route wouldn’t take me by my normal stop at Denny’s to get some food. I made it to the hotel, got checked in, and hit NYPD to pick up a pizza. I ate it on the balcony to begin enjoying my stay, but it was a lot cooler than I had anticipated. Bummer. I unpacked and had the maintenance guy Moises come up to my room to swap out shower heads. I like to bring my own hand-held shower head, and the head that was on the shower was too difficult to remove by hand. I needed a wrench. I managed to get a short nap before my balcony time, which I needed because I was having a bit of trouble staying awake on the freeway. Right at midnight I sat on the balcony and started enjoying my evening. It was chilly and cloudy, but very nice. However, I was a bit sad because I was missing my usual traveling companion, Roxy. She and I would sit on the balcony and eat popcorn and Rice Krispy treats. Good times. Once the city finally quieted down it was quite pleasant. I was trying to figure out the best way to surprise Shirley tomorrow.

Sunday the 23rd – TOO COLD OUTSIDE! TOO HOT INSIDE! – Though I had a pretty good sleep, I woke up sweating around 3 in the afternoon. The air conditioning in my room wasn’t working properly. Once again, the maintenance guy Moises came to my room with a fan to see what was up. But he didn’t know what the problem was, so he asked if I wanted to change rooms. But changing rooms from my usual 627 kind of defeats the point of my Palm Springs experience. I told him if I had to pack everything up to change rooms, I’d probably just go back home. I hadn’t let Shirley know I was in town yet, so she would be none the wiser if I left. I found it odd that it was so chilly outside at night, but my room was so warm. I called Shirley several times but got no answer. I continued to call throughout the afternoon, but she wasn’t picking up her phone. Maybe I WILL head home. As the sun began to set I opened up the balcony door and it started to cool down a bit. Moises came back and told me that he had a few other reports of people being hot in their rooms, so he went downstairs to check on the coolers that chill the water that runs through the air conditioning system. He noticed that one wasn’t working, so he reset it and it came back on-line. So the AC system started working again. Since I hadn’t been able to contact Shirley, after many attempts, I called the place she lived to see if they’ve seen her, and if she’s OK. It was the dinner hour so they said they’d check the dining room to see if she was there and give her a message. Finally Shirley called back and said she shut the ringer of her phone off accidentally. But since she already ate dinner she didn’t want to go out. I told her I’d pick her up for dinner the next day, but she should make sure and get her phone ringer fixed. I grabbed a short nap, and when I got up later it was very breezy out. All of the clouds from the night before had cleared away with the wind, and it was nice and clear out. Lots of stars, but still chilly. I had the front desk send up a blanket. I went over to NYPD again to get another pizza and enjoyed it on the balcony. Later the wind subsided and I had a very nice evening relaxing.

(TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT WEEK’S WALLY’S WEEK!)

And how was YOUR week??!!

VIDEO FROM THE WEEK