September 21 – September 27 (2020)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

This info from the CDC is VERY welcome. AT LAST!

I’ve always loved Chicago, but “Feelin’ Stronger Everyday” is one of their best, and has been stuck in my head. Now that the world is re-opening, it’s a good “come back” tune to hum as the planet resurrects.

Monday the 21st – TORINO TIME! – The day started with an e-mail from my pal Troy asking me to record a few revised lines for some bits for “The Ellen Show.” Then I went to my mailbox and got my packages, and then went to CVS to get some more photos printed for my South Dakota photo albums. I also got some eye drops for my 93 year old ‘adopted grandma’ Shirley. She accidentally hit herself in the eye while she slept, and it’s very red. Her doctor told her to use regular eye drops to keep it lubricated and it would heal on its own. I dropped off the eye drops to Shirley’s residence, stopped by Enterprise to reserve my SUV for my upcoming trip to Palm Springs. Then I went to my auxiliary garage and started up the Gran Torino. I didn’t need to jump it, it started right up! But all that sitting around had made the tires a bit soft, so I sped over to Firestone and got a few more pounds of air in each tire. I came home and went inside to work on my photo albums. Later I made some lasagna and watched “The Time Tunnel.”

Tuesday the 22nd – UNCONFIRMED! – I always hate waking up late and finding out I missed out on a great audition. But to wake up and find out that I missed out on a session REALLY freaks me out! Though I had discussed a potential session the previous week with my pal Jim (a guy I’ve been doing narrations for over the past two decades) nothing was ever set in stone. He asked if I was available on Tuesday the 22nd and I said I was. But no solid confirmation ever occurred. He does great work with multi-media presentations for kids in school assemblies, and the content is all about self-esteem, driving safety, suicide, and staying away from drugs and alcohol. So I got a voicemail from both Jim and Evan at the studio that they were waiting for me. We got it all straightened out and we agreed to do it again on Wednesday instead. And we CONFIRMED. Because of all the restrictions from the virus thing, Jim won’t be able to be in the studio to direct me, as he has done over the past 20 years. That freaks him out a little bit. But he’ll be on the phone directing, so it should be OK. I packed up my broken laser printer and took it over to Fed Ex to send it in for repair. I dropped some supplements by Shirley’s residence, because I want her to be on a daily dose of Quercitin and zinc. She’ll be moving to Palm Springs in the next few weeks, and she hasn’t been out in the real world in about six months. I’m concerned that her immune system might have gone dormant, so before her move I want to fortify her immune system. I hit Taco Bell for some lunch and had a blast with “Head-turning Hutch.” In the passenger seat of my Gran Torino I have a Hutch mannequin; fully dressed with sunglasses and hair. I got sick of people asking where Hutch was, so years ago I had my effects guy Jim Ojala create a lookalike mannequin. But recently, my pal Mike put a servo motor in his neck so I could make Hutch’s head move back and forth. I have a little dial on a control pad that sits in the area between my two bucket seats, and I can turn the dial back and forth to move his head. I came home to find out that while I was at the Taco Bell drive-thru somebody had filmed some video of Hutch looking around. On his first day out, “Head-turning Hutch” is already a star! I came home and wrote Wally’s Week. I did some auditions, and then scanned some checks for a deposit.

Wednesday the 23rd – A WALLY WEDNESDAY WALK! – It was a gorgeous day so I strolled over to the bank to make some deposits. Then I went to Voice Trax West to record the narration session for the multi-media assembly program for this year. Many schools are getting back into session now, so Jim’s gearing up for his next presentation; for both in-person and on-line presentations. I drove to my dentist’s office to get my ‘night guard’ – which should protect my teeth against any grinding I might do while I sleep. I had more fun with Hutch while driving around! I met my pal Sara at Paty’s for dinner, then I drove home to work on my computer organizing my photo folders. I did some auditions, and then made a pizza and watched another episode of “The Time Tunnel.”

Thursday the 24th – MY NEIGHBOR; JACK HAMMER! – The sound of a jackhammer awakened me early afternoon. I guess my neighbors were redoing their patio floor. When I got up I realized I had a few more changes to do for the “Ellen” show, but because of all the noise outside I had to go ask them to stop for just a few minutes so I could record my bits. One of my agents sent me an e-mail letting me know that I had a session for a Universal Kids promo for Friday morning at 11. I’ll be doing a few voices for characters in some upcoming Halloween promos! Exciting! I spent the day organizing my photo folders, and then my computer guy Brian called me to work on installing Google Play in my new tablet. But I realized that I needed a massive clean-up of my iTunes folder, so before we could proceed I needed to do that. Well, there goes my night. I printed up a list of all the songs in my folder (close to 3,000) so I could do a cross check with my iTunes to reconcile everything. I got rid of redundancies and files I no longer needed. I recorded some auditions and then hit the hay to be up for my Universal Kids session on Friday.

Friday the 25th – RESIDENCE REVIEW! – The Universal Kids session was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see the promos on the air. After the session I did a last-minute audition, worked on the computer a bit, talked to Shirley’s daughter about her upcoming move, and then laid down for a bit because I was still a little sleepy. My house sitter Emily came over later in the evening to review the security procedures for Planet Wallywood, since she’d be house sitting and watching my cat Spooky during my upcoming trip to Palm Springs. It had literally been a year since I’ve been anywhere, so it was time for a brush up. I spent the rest of the evening working on my computer organizing my photo folders, doing auditions, and then I headed over to Denny’s to get some food to go. I enjoyed my dinner and watched another episode of “The Time Tunnel.”

Saturday the 26th – BEAUTIFUL DAY AT BOB’S! – Since the weather outside was still gorgeous, I walked over to Roxy’s vet to get some more of her medication called Carprophen. It’s an anti-inflammatory that’s been a MIRACLE to keep her age-related leg weakness at bay. Then I walked over to see my stylist Andie for a cut and color. I came back home and did some work, and later my pal Brittney Powell came over so we could drive to Bob’s Big Boy to meet ‘the gang’ for dinner. Since we can’t do movie nights any more at Planet Wallywood, we all agree to meet for dinner every once in a while to catch up on all the news. I took my “Beautiful Day monster” Muppet replica over to show my pal James. Like me, “B.D.M” is one of James’ favorite Muppets. “Head-turning Hutch” was also a really big hit. My pal Nate brought his A Team replica van over and we got some great shots with my Gran Torino. I came back home and recorded some Voice-Over material for a ‘do-it-yourself’ session. I did the first half, and I’ll do the first half tomorrow. I need to rearrange my travel plans for Palm Springs so I can take Shirley with me, so I made some plans to leave a day later than expected. I made my traditional Saturday night Super Salad and finished up the “Space 1999” series. Next, I’m going to watch “The Saint” from episode 1 all the way to the end. That will most likely take close to half a year if I watch one episode every Saturday night. The show went for 5 seasons, but since it’s a British show, the seasons were a little shorter.

Sunday the 27th – TUNES TRANSFER! – In preparation for my upcoming trip to Palm Springs to sit on the balcony all night, listen to tunes and meditate, I transferred all my relevant songs to my new tablet. Then I finished up the second half of the ‘do-it-yourself’ session, and did all my auditions. I worked around the house and organized some mail for Monday. It’s going to be hot this coming week, but I LOVE it! I’m not quite ready to kiss summer good-bye quite yet.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK