October 24 – October 30 (2022)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

When I was together recently with my old “Bat Pack” (my South Dakota buddies Chris and Dave) we talked about local TV legend Captain 11. When I saw this post on a Facebook page I just had to grab it. The words in his show opening are classic to kids like us, and still give me chills.

With the passing this past week of rock legend Jerry Lee Lewis (“The Killer’) it got me humming one of my favorite songs of his. I was a country DJ for about 6 months back in the fall of 1978 to the spring of 1979. During that time Jerry Lee released “Rockin’ My Life Away,” which is still in my regular rotation of songs I listen to on my devices. I could attach the MP3 here, but I want you to see this guy play the song live, because watching this guy perform is nothing short of mesmerizing. “My name is Jerry Lee Lewis and I’m darned sure here to stay!”

(Meanwhile…in Palm Springs…)

Monday the 24th – SHIRLEY! FINALLY! – If you remember from last week’s Wally’s Week, I had driven to Palm Springs to see my 95 year old “adopted grandma” Shirley and do some other business. I didn’t tell Shirley I was coming to the area so I could surprise her. What I hadn’t counted on was that she would have the ringer on her phone turned off accidentally so I wasn’t actually able to get ahold of her after many tries. The entire day of Sunday in Palm Springs was wasted because I simply couldn’t get ahold of her. Luckily, on Sunday night, I was able to get to her by calling the front desk at the place where she resides, and having THEM pass a message along to her. We agreed to meet for dinner on Monday night, but we hadn’t settled on a time. I called her again at noon today and again, no answer. I’m going to see to it that she gets a better phone that she can understand better, so she has an easier understanding of the volume control of the ringer. I slept for a few hours, and tried her again at 2. This time she answered! I’m picking her up for dinner at 5! On the drive over to see her I noticed that my back was really sore (too much sleeping?) and my eyes were bleary and fuzzy (too dry in the desert?) Even though I bring eye drops along with me to the desert, I think I need to somehow keep my eyes more moist when I travel out here. I was having trouble focusing on things. It was a very nice drive out to get Shirley (that area is simply beautiful!) and I picked Shirley up and we headed to our usual place called Papa Dan’s to eat. It’s a local Italian place she loves, and since she told me they took spaghetti off the menu at the place she lives, it was good to have some spaghetti again. I don’t know about you, but if the place where I lived stopped serving spaghetti I think I’d probably move. I most likely couldn’t exist without it! After dinner I took Shirley over to the grocery store to pick up some items she needed. At first she always says she doesn’t need anything. But by the time we get there she comes up with a few items she’d like to get. And then a few more items, and then a few more items. It’s always funny to me. I love doing this and helping her out, but she’s reluctant to take my assistance. She doesn’t understand that doing this for her makes me feel good, and I need to do it. I feel so proud carrying in an armful of groceries to her place. While we shopped Shirley got a call from her daughter asking if she wanted to meet for lunch on Tuesday. She didn’t know I had come to town, so we all arranged to meet for lunch. It’ll be fun, and I hadn’t seen Shirley’s daughter in a while. I dropped Shirley off at home, took her groceries inside, and drove back to Palm Springs. Because of a lot of extenuating circumstances I decided to pack up and head back home earlier than I had planned. After lunch with Shirley on Tuesday I’d hit the freeway and head home. I spent some more time on the balcony watching stars again (my final night for this trip) and I had to put on my long socks, sweat pants, hoodie, and I had a blanket on me. I felt ridiculous, but the view was spectacular. I saw a giant owl who was sitting in one of the evergreen trees across the street on the golf course, hooting like crazy. It was nice to get to see the planet Venus set behind Mount Abe. The planet kissed the top of the mountain, it shimmered a bit, and then POOF! It was gone. I love watching the earth turn like that. Before bed I packed up some things and got ready to jet home the next day.

Tuesday the 25th – HOME AGAIN! – Even though it was a short trip, coming back home earlier than I had planned didn’t bother me. I didn’t really get to see Shirley as much as I had planned, and the weather was much too chilly for my night time star watching purposes anyway. I got up at 11, packed everything up, checked out of my room a day early and hit the freeway to have lunch with Shirley and her daughter. When I got to the restaurant Shirley’s daughter was looking up phones that might be more user-friendly for Shirley. I looked at the phone Shirley was currently using and my eyes crossed. There were so many apps and functions on that phone that she’d never ever use in a million years. Not being a fan of clutter, I suggested that she get a much simpler model. After lunch I hit the freeway at 1:15 and was home in two hours. I stopped at my mailbox to get my mail, stopped at home to unload my luggage, gassed up the rental vehicle, and turned it back into Enterprise a day early. I walked home and paid my house sitter Emily for her stay. Then she and I walked a few blocks to a restaurant to grab lunch and then she was on her way home. And so was I. I unpacked some stuff and tried to catch up on everything that had happened while I was away. I’ve gotta admit, it was nice seeing Spook and Roxy again. As Roxy’s in the final years of her life, I realize that every minute I spend away from her is lost time. But Emily took very good care of her and didn’t seem that impressed to see me. You see, Emily gives her regular massages while I’m away, so I’m sure Roxy will be missing those. Even though I try to massage her as much as I can. But Emily’s a pro at it! I grabbed a nap (ahhhh…my own bed!) and then got up later to write Wally’s Week, record my auditions, and finish unpacking. It was a VERY busy night! I made a pot pie and watched a few more episodes of “The Lone Ranger” from season four!

Wednesday the 26th – CLOSET PURGE! – When I got up I had a lot of accounting work that I had to get to that I had been putting off. I also did some laundry, and some prep for the upcoming autograph appearance at OG Collectibles on November 5th in Downey, CA. I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone! I counted up all the photo prints I had in my case and sent the final number to my appearance manager for approval. If there were any prints I needed more of, I had to know right away to submit my order. I handled a ton of e-mails, and decided that it was finally time to put my electric blanket back on my bed for the season. Yup, it’s cold now. When I pulled my main electric blanket out of my upstairs hall closet I realized what a mess it was in there. There was a lot of stuff I just didn’t need any longer, and I decided that there was no time like the present to stage a major purge. It took hours and hours of organization. I pulled every electric blanket I had out of the closet, found every controller I could find, matched up the controller with the blankets, plugged them all in to see if they were still working, and if they were, put them all in their individual laundry bags for storage. The two blankets I found which had no companion controllers I sacked up to give to my church for their human needs ministry. Even though the blanket could no longer heat up, it was still totally useful as a warm, comfy blanket that perhaps someone could still get some use out of if they’re in need during the colder days. The purge and resulting organization literally took about four hours! I labeled things accordingly, placed all the sheets for the bed in the Puppet Room in plastic bins and put them on one shelf. I already had all the sheets for my room in bins on another shelf, and I boxed up and organized a lot of the other stuff in that closet – such as steamers, humidifiers, comforters, pillows, etc. Whew! It was a job that was a long time coming, but I’m glad to have it done. Then I went downstairs and started cleaning up Roxy’s room (the living room) because it gets quite dirty after a few days. After vacuuming and mopping it looked pretty nice! It was a very productive day. I napped in the Puppet Room for a bit, and then got up later for an audition. I worked around the house all night and finished labeling the shelves in the upstairs closet.

Thursday the 27th – GOOD TO BE BACK HOME AGAIN! – There was an item I needed to get notarized for some financial documents I was mailing off, so I went to my mailbox and got that done, and also picked up my packages. Since I was in the area I stopped at Paty’s to enjoy a salad on the patio at the end of a very nice day. I talked to Shirley on the phone (she answered!) and we chatted about what kind of new phone she’d be getting to uncomplicate her life. I got back home and did some more work around the house, recorded my nightly auditions, and got my recording area set up for a very VERY early session on Friday morning with a client on the east coast.

Friday the 28th – CRAZY SESSION! – Normally when I have to get up really early for a session in my home studio, when the client is on the east coast, I just stay up late and do it before I go to bed for the day. But for this one I grabbed a few hours of sleep before I had to be on-line with the client at 7:30am Pacific Time. The session was supposed to go from 7:30 to 9:30 and we’d be recording six spots; one :30 second spot, and five :15 second spots. The client had let my agent know that it may go a tiny bit longer, but in my experience, two hours would be plenty of time to get all this done. In fact, it’s probably going to end up being more time than we need. But it didn’t exactly go that way. In Roxy’s advanced age she’s good for about 5 hours between potty breaks. I had her next break scheduled for 9:30, immediately after the session was supposed to end. But the client spent two hours on just the first :30 spot. I can honestly say this is the first time in my 20+ year career that I’ve spent two hours on a :30 second spot. It was 9:30 and we still weren’t done yet. And we still had five :15 second spots to do. It was moving very, very slowly. But in the middle of one of my reads I heard the sound of liquid hitting the rubber padding coming from downstairs. I had gotten so busy with the session I had lost track of time, and forgotten all about Roxy’s scheduled potty break. I immediately dashed away from the recording set-up and handled matters. I took her outside (but by then it was too late) and cleaned everything up before it started smelling bad. I got back on-line with the client and apologized but told them life had gotten in the way for a short time. I was kind of hoping they would get everything wrapped up soon, and from now on I think I’m going to have to place a two hour time limit on all home studio sessions. Anything longer than that they’ll have to hire a real recording studio. I’d like to say that we breezed through the remaining five :15 second spots, but it took another hour and fifteen minutes just to record those. By the time we wrapped the session had gone 3 hours and 15 minutes, which for six short spots is relatively unheard of in this industry. I can understand if you’re recording six :60 spots, the session is probably going to run about 4 hours. When I did the Dodge TV commercials that was the case because I was providing the voice for an animated CGI monkey. I just couldn’t wrap my head around why it was taking so incredibly long to do these six short spots. They were liking my performances, but everything was just moving so slowly. When the session finally ended I decided to nap on the couch until my maids arrived. I was exhausted! As the maids were cleaning up, one maid saw my big Christoween book on my cabinet and asked where she could hear the stories. Wow! Even my maids are getting into the Christoween spirit! I went to the bank to make a few deposits, and then enjoyed lunch on the patio at Panera. I got a few grocery items at the store and headed home to unpack the groceries and take a much-needed long nap. I got up later to do the auditions that were due on Monday, worked around the house, and took Roxy on a long late-night stroll through the neighborhood. She was having a very good night and doing really well. She really enjoys her time outside, sniffing around and enjoying the evening. I drove to Denny’s to get some food, and then came back to watch a few more episodes of “The Lone Ranger” and enjoy my food. I’m enjoying Clayton Moore’s return as the Ranger, and it seems like he’s enjoying it too. He somehow seems “better” in the role; more confident. I guess when you have thousands of fans demanding your return to the role, it gives you a good feeling of confidence and positivity.

Saturday the 29th – HOT HOLLYWOOD HALLOWEEN! – It was a gorgeous 81 degree day out, and I spent the day prepping for a charity Halloween party in Hollywood that night at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. My buddy Brian has been doing these events for years, and now that things have settled back into relative normalcy I decided to step out with my pal Valerie Perez! My friend Emily had a celebrity client attending, but her client had to cancel at the last minute for a family emergency. But Emily and I decided to drive together into Hollywood, so she picked me up at 6. We negotiated the traffic into Hollywood pretty well, but there was a snarl of traffic around the Hollywood Bowl because Danny Elfman was in concert that night; perfect Halloween fare! We got parked and walked up to Madame Tussaud’s rooftop where the main party was being held. My pal Valerie soon arrived with her friend Vera, a fellow puppeteer. Then my pal Rob Richards arrived from having just completed one of his theatre organ shows across the street at Disney’s El Capital Theatre, where he’s the head organist. It was a great time hanging out with everyone, and we went inside to tour the museum. A while later fellow Voice Actor Fred Tatasciore arrived and we hung out, as we hadn’t seen each other since before the Wu Flu madness of 2020. The line to the “red carpet” photo line was continually very long; one of the most popular features of these events. Our group got in line at the back of the line, but we were all pulled out of line and brought to the front by the photographers. One by one they snuck us in to have us photographed. We all wrote our name on little dry erase slate boards so our photo set would be preceded by our names on a slate. I handed mine to the guy who was handling them, but soon realized he thought I was done with me and it got erased. Not being one who enjoys hanging around waiting to be photographed I took that as a sign that I needed to go mingle and have a good time. But just as I had gotten to one of the tables and filled my hands with mini Tootsie Rolls, they grabbed me and put me on the red carpet photo area to be photographed. My slate had already been erased, so here’s an unknown guy in a Dude costume eating Tootsie Rolls, looking like he’d rather be somewhere else. Hilarious! It’s SO The Dude! Oddly enough, by the time I got pulled in for photos, I realized that I should have just stayed in line in my original spot. I would have actually gotten up to the photo area sooner. It’s kind of like switching lanes at the grocery store thinking that one line is going faster than the one you’re in, only to find out it’s actually slower. I wasn’t featured on the event’s website as an attending guest, so when people recognized me and asked for photos with me I was quite surprised. That was pretty cool. I ran into a gal named Donna who reminded me that I invited her and her daughter to a “Bleach” recording session 10+ years ago to help inspire her young daughter to go into art. Now her daughter is almost 20 and is doing just that. I was really touched when Donna mentioned that her daughter took a great deal of inspiration from that interaction, and set off to follow her dream. I had a lot of fun with the gang, chatting with random people, enjoying the costumes and food, but I realized that Roxy’s “five hour potty window” was quickly closing, and I needed to get home to walk her by 11pm. I got back to the house and got Roxy walked, and all was good. I napped for a bit, and then got up to do some work around the house. Later I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and watched another episode of “The Saint” before bed. I only have a few episodes left in the fourth season, and soon I’ll get into the fifth season which is in COLOR!

Sunday the 30th – ONE MORE DAY! – As is normal for a Sunday, I slept very late. I got up to feed the pets and then decided I needed to nap again. I met my pal Bob later for a very late dinner at Denny’s, and he gave me back the empty plastic bins I had originally given him that were filled with eBay stuff. I’m going to go through a few things and fill them up again so he can sell some more stuff for me. I got home and worked around the house, worked in the garage a little bit, and then hit the hay. One more day to Halloween!

And how was YOUR week??!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Drought? What drought? Even though California is currently experiencing state-mandated water restrictions, I noticed in Palm Springs that the golf courses were all green and beautiful, and were watered about four times a day. Hmmm…

I tried to talk Shirley into letting me buy these cat ears for her, but she refused. They looked so good on her that other people in the store were commenting on it!

The following shots from Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum were taken by Valerie Perez #valerieperez @thevalerieperez Enjoy!

It was great having my buddy Rob Richards with me to clown around in the museum. I’ve known Rob for about 50 years and he’s the closest thing I have to a big brother.