RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
I love looking through the vintage photos that are posted on an Aberdeen, South Dakota webpage. Since my dad and I both spent a fair amount of time at the old YMCA, I started downloading some of the photos they posted of how the old “Y” looked back in the day. But in this one particular photo of the pool, it looked to me like former president Richard Nixon was swimming there! Obviously it wasn’t, but wow! It sure LOOKED like Nixon!
The song I featured last week was by a band I just recently discovered on the Jeff Lynne’s ELO “Over and Out” tour. They were the opening band, and since I saw the show four times I became more interested in the band the more I saw them. It’s not often that an opening band can get such a rousing response from an audience that was there to see somebody else, but it happened with Rooney. Here’s another song I like of theirs called “Blueside” which they opened their show with. Terrific stuff!
Monday the 28th – COOL CONCERT COLLAGE! – I woke up laughing, and I always love that. I must’ve had some funny dream. My assistant and house sitter Emily met me for lunch at Paty’s and I got her paid for watching Spook over the weekend while I was at the ELO concert. I got back home and met up with my pal Sara so she could trim Spook’s nails. She has a great set of clippers and the patience to sit with him wrapped up in a towel while she gives him his manicure (which he hates). Then I headed over to CVS to get some photos printed for my new concert collage that I’m planning. Since I had so many great mementos from the ELO concert, I decided to do what I did with the cool stuff I acquired at the McCartney concert back in 2016 – make a framed collage! Where I’m going to hang it, I have absolutely NO idea at this point. But I’ll find space for it somewhere. I picked up a few grocery items, and then headed to my local Michael’s to plot out the new framed piece. I got back home to do auditions and the sun was already starting to go down. I really hate that the sun goes down so early now. I relaxed, and then later took my nightly WOG (walk/jog). But it was much too cold out to spend any useful time outside relaxing in the anti-gravity chair. I hadn’t taken my blood pressure in a long time so I figured I’d give it a shot. The numbers that came back were astonishing! They are right! A regular exercise program makes all the difference. The first numbers were great, but as I continued to take my blood pressure the readings got increasingly better! When it went to 125 over 76 I snapped a photo to send to my doctor! WOW! I wrote up Wally’s Week and hit the hay.
Tuesday the 29th – CELEB SPOTTING! – It was time for my follow-up with my sports medicine doctor regarding my tennis elbow issue. It’s been gradually improving and I’m hoping the issue will go away entirely within a few weeks. He said I was coming along so well that he advised against getting a cortisone shot, as he said those are only for the most extreme cases. Then I headed over to Paty’s to meet up with my pals Emily and Edi. Our server Lauren saw my ELO hoodie and asked how the concert was. I was shocked that she even knew who they were given that she was so young, but she said she was raised on all the right music. On the way out of the restaurant I saw “Star Trek’s” Walter Koenig with his daughter Danielle. I worked with Danielle in the old days on “Invader Zim” so I called out to her. It was great catching up and seeing her dad again. I had recently seen him while I was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota at the Siouxpercon. I didn’t bother him at the time, but it’s good to see that he’s still out and about. It was a fun conversation. As we were chatting, I spotted the great Bruce Dern walking into the restaurant! WOW! He’s my dad’s favorite, and my dad still talks about the long phone conversation he had with Bruce several years ago at a Hollywood Collector Show. I had just gotten his autograph for my dad and asked Bruce if he would say hi to my dad on the phone. What ended up happening was a fun 15 minute conversation between the two of them. Bruce’s wife is from North Dakota, so they chatted a lot about the Midwest. Like Bruce, my dad was always a religious jogger. So they chatted about running and how many miles they’ve put in over the years. The conversation went so well that my dad now refers to him as “my buddy Bruce Dern” whenever he sees him in old reruns on TV shows. I never forgot how nice he was to my dad, and the wonderful memory he helped create, so I motioned Lauren over and told her that I’d be paying for Mr. Dern’s lunch. As we were leaving the patio area I walked by the window where Mr. Dern and his friend were having lunch, and they waved at me in thanks. I went inside to say hi and thank him again for being so kind to my dad all those years ago. Once again Bruce lit up when the subject turned to jogging. He said that during the 17 years he was actively jogging 7 miles a day, he’s put in a total of 105,000 miles – which is a trip around the world! Amazing. It’s a testament as to why Bruce is still going strong at 88, and my dad will soon be 90! As I mentioned before, exercise makes all the difference! On my way home I stopped at my stylist Andie’s salon (she wasn’t in that day) to drop off the curling product she gave me to use for the “Jeff Lynne cosplay” I did for the ELO concert over the weekend. I was amazed at how well it worked! I’ve lost the majority of my natural curl, but this product really revitalized it! I’m buying some to have on-hand in case I have an audition that calls for rocker hair. I got home and did some work, and talked to my computer guy Brian to work out a few remaining computer issues. The day was very, very windy and my throat was really dry. It was particularly sensitive to the deodorizer I have in the Chaney Bathroom, where Spook’s litter box is. It seemed like the scent had lodged in my throat and was irritating it, so I knocked the deodorizer down a few notches so it wouldn’t be so strong. I recorded some auditions and then rested for a while. But when I woke up my throat was still irritated; dry – but not sore. Since it was still windy outside I decided against going on my WOG, as the last thing I needed to do was to go outside and get attacked by more allergens! I felt like going back to bed, so I did. I slept until 6am. Since it had turned so cold I put my electric blanket back on my bed. Ugh. I hate winter. By then I noticed that I was sniffling quite a bit. I had a bad runny nose and I was sneezing more than I should be. Uh oh.
Wednesday the 30th – @#%##)$%! HEAD COLD! – Great. The day before Halloween and I get a head cold. It included all the usual symptoms, but luckily did NOT include a sore throat, body aches, and a fever. And best of all, my voice was never affected at all. Nope, this was just a simple head cold. I went outside and sat in the sun for about a half hour hoping the UV light would burn the nasties out of my system. I called my doctor and got a telemed appointment right away. He prescribed me a nasal spray for the sneezing and runny nose, as well as some antibiotics in case it went into coughing and bronchitis. Given my history, it most assuredly would. I drove over to CVS and picked up some Nyquil and the prescription. I called my gal Angi to cancel our Halloween plans. Then I went home and headed to bed to ride this out for a few days.
Thursday the 31st – ACHOO! – Sneeze. Achoo. Sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze, achoo. Drip drip drip. Sleep. Achoo. Sneeze sneeze sneeze. Sleep.
Friday the 1st – COUGH! – Luckily I was feeling better enough to get some packages at my box and grab a salad on the patio at Paty’s in the sunshine. But then I went home to rest and take some more meds. I remembered that I had a nebulizer and a corticosteroid inhalant that I felt would help mitigate the forthcoming chest nasties. So I dug that out and started on it. The rest of the night was tough. As much as I hate the incessant sneezing, it’s nowhere near as bad as the incessant coughing! Cough cough cough. Sleep. Meds. Nebulizer. Cough cough cough. Sleep.
Saturday the 2nd – LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL! – After a rough Friday night of coughing and hacking, it seemed by Saturday afternoon I was coming out of it. Luckily this head cold seemed like it was pretty mild. I never got chills, fever, body aches, sore throat, etc. And I never lost my voice, which is always welcome. It mostly stayed centered in my upper head, and then went into the chest. Being the first Saturday of the month, it was my monthly commemoration I call “Laurel & Hardy Theatre!” If I ever needed to laugh it was now, given the past few days I’ve been through. I was worried that the tickle in my lungs wouldn’t let me unleash the usual guffaws I express when watching The Boys. But it actually went pretty well. As is my monthly tradition, I made a Chef Boyardee pizza, had a banana Twinkie, popped some popcorn, had ice cold Diet Pepsi in the Stan Laurel mug my mom made me at ceramics class back in 1974, and put on my custom L&H pajamas and my Sons of the Desert fez. It felt good to get back to a little normalcy in my life. The two titles I picked out of the “40 Shorties Fez” (a Sons of the Desert fez I have that contains strips of paper containing the titles of all their short films) were “The Music Box” (probably their all-time greatest short), and “The Live Ghost.” Both were hysterically funny, and I had a wonderful time enjoying some laughs with Stan & Ollie. The new Blu-ray called “Laurel & Hardy; Year 2” will be out this coming week, but I won’t be starting that until January. Given that they made 10 silent shorts in the year 1928, that will give me 5 months of good content to watch in 2025!
Sunday the 3rd – IT’S OVER! – My cough has subsided to a very minor annoyance, and it’s just clearing out some leftover junk in my lungs. Other than that I’m back to total normalcy. I did some minor work around the house, and while I thought about resuming my WOG routine, I decided to give it one more night just to be sure. I still didn’t feel ready for that yet. But come Monday I’ll be back out again in full force!
And how was (ACHOO!) YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
I LOVE this blood pressure reading! And so did my doctor!
I guess the old head of hair still has some life left in it! Wow! That curl stuff really works!
Here’s how my ELO concert collage will end up being arranged in the final framed presentation. What great memories!
Given as windy as it’s been here, a neighbor’s sunbrella got completely shredded. And to make matters worse, it got into a huge scuffle with a crazy squirrel. The squirrel on sunbrella violence was palpable!
