September 23 – October 01 (2024)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

With the advent of my 45th class reunion about a week ago (I couldn’t attend in person but was able to join it via livestream) a lot of my old classmates were sharing photos. This one is from my Junior High chorus class. (See if you can spy a certain fuzzy-headed baritone in the group.) Oddly enough, I can still name the majority of the people in this picture. Which is strange considering I can’t remember what I had for breakfast this morning!

While at the ELO concert last Monday night, I heard that Jeff Lynne starts every show at 9:05pm, so it times out that the song “Last Train To London” hits right at 9:29pm. The lyrics “It was 9:29. 9:29 backstreet, big city” play perfectly along with the time. It’s kind of a cool little thing. So our group all checked out phones when “Last Train To London” started up, but Jeff was 1 minute too early. They played the song at 9:28. Oh well. It was fun, and now the song (one of my favorites) is stuck in my head!

Monday the 23rd – CHRISTOWEEN STOP-MOTION’S STARTING MOTIONS! – Almost a year ago I met a young artist named Isaiah Thomas who showed me a wonderful 1 minute stop-motion video he created to “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “My Bologna.” It was so great I asked him to meet with me about doing a possible 1 minute demo for my “Christoween” stories. Now, several months later, we’re finally working on pre-production stuff to make that a reality! Isaiah came over and we headed to Joann’s to pick up some supplies, and to meet with my seamstress Maggie who will be making the costumes for the stop-motion puppets. We picked up some nice fabrics, and then we all headed to lunch at a local English pub called Robin Hood. Then Isaiah and I headed over to my pal Jim Ojala’s effects shop so Jim could mold the puppet head I sculpted for the main character in my story Donnie Druthers. Isaiah and I both agreed that using the original head for the video probably wasn’t a good idea, and having a mold to make copies is a wise move. While Jim and Isaiah worked I headed over to my box to get some packages, mailed off a few bills, and then headed back to Jim’s to pick up the final result. It turned out beautifully! Now Isaiah has one perfect copy to use for the puppet. I dropped Isaiah at the train station so he could head home and start working, and I dropped off an Amazon return package at the local UPS store. I dropped by Spook’s vet’s office to get more food for him (he’s on a specific prescription food that can only be acquired at the vet’s office), and then I headed home. Whew! What a day! I did some last minute packing and got ready to fly for my big week-long extravaganza that would take me to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and St. Paul, Minnesota!

Tuesday the 24th – PERFECT START! – At 6:30am I was up and at ‘em. I was out the door by 7 and at the airport by 7:20. I dropped the Gray Ghost off at the valet. He asked if I wanted to include a car wash and I thought that was a great idea. I would come back to a clean vehicle upon my return in a week! I checked in, handed over my luggage, and got a breakfast sandwich in the terminal before the flight. The plane to Denver was on-time and the flight was terrific. The weather was perfect. In fact, I heard the weather in the Midwest was going to be perfect all week! I learned an important lesson from the horrible airport experience from last July. From now on it’s strictly early-morning flights for me – as they are usually on time at the beginning of the day. The later in the day it gets, the more opportunity for tardiness occurs. I got to the Denver airport at gate B2, and had to truck all the way to B69 to get my flight to Sioux Falls. The Denver airport is expansive, so I turned up my iPod and got a good WOG (walk/jog) in at the airport. I hot-footed it over to my gate, even though I had plenty of time before my flight. Since I didn’t get my exercise in last night, this would have to do. Songs like “Early Morning Rain” and “Jet Airliner” came on my iPod which was perfect, because both songs have something to do with air travel! So far, everything was on-time and perfect. I looked out the window of the plane as we descended into Sioux Falls, and the view was peppered with spotty clouds that were huge and fluffy. They almost looked like a painting, they were so beautiful! The music on my iPod perfectly underscored the experience, as a wonderful piece of “space music” came up on my playlist that made it seem almost like a scene from a movie. It was actually quite beautiful and moving. I could see my parents’ house from the plane! We touched down exactly at 4:30, perfectly on-time! I went to get my rental car, and what do you think they had for me? A 2024 RAV-4 – one year newer than mine! There will be an air of comfortable familiarity while I drive around Sioux Falls! I stopped by my parents’ house to pick up some supplies and visit with them. They dug out a box of great old photos that I haven’t seen in years, and I had a blast going through them! They said I could have them, but I just don’t know how to get them home! I went to the Hyatt to check in, got my room and cleaned up. I met my family for a quick dinner, and then stopped at Walmart on my way back to the hotel to get some supplies. When I got back to the room I was tired, but hungry for a Boss’ pizza! It’s a local pizza place that I love, and I look forward to getting one of their pizzas every night during my stay. Unfortunately, over the past year, they’ve changed – and not for the better. They were very rude on the phone, and the pizza took 1.5 hours to get there! Once it arrived it was terrible and I ended up eating only about half of it. I guess my obsession with Boss’ pizza is done.

Wednesday the 25th – MY GREEN TRAVELING PARTNER! – After enjoying a nice, long sleep, I awoke to several texts and a voicemail message from my old pal Kevin Kjeergard. He and I went to radio & TV class together in high school, and Kevin is one of the top camera guys at one of the local TV stations in town. He said he heard I was in town and asked if I wanted to come in for a quick interview for a news story. I returned his call and we arranged to meet for lunch around 2. That meant I had plenty of time to get a few things done before then. When I unpacked my “Travel Kermit,” (my Kermit the Frog puppet that I use for travel) I noticed that his eye pieces were a little scuffed. I stopped at the local Michael’s crafts and picked up several bottles of different shades of white acrylic paint and some brushes. I would color match the paint to the color of his eyeballs in my room later, and hopefully do some adequate touch-up work. A few of the people in my hotel asked for signed photos of my Renji character, so since I travel with a flash drive full of character photos, I stopped at Walgreens to get some enlargements printed. On the way to the TV station I stopped at a store that is owned by my high school girlfriend. Sondee and her husband have owned this store for many, many years and I know she works there seven days a week. So I had no doubts she’d be there, and as soon as I walked in there she was! I hadn’t seen her in several years. Even though she was very busy, we had a great chat. I headed to KELO-TV to meet up with my pals Paul and Kevin (both former radio & TV classmates) and we walked a few blocks to get lunch. When we walked back to the studio Kevin asked me to bring Kermit in for a sit-down interview with one of their reporters. Most of the interview was done without the puppet, but toward the end I brought him out so he could join us. I figured the piece would be on the news the next day, but later in the afternoon Kevin told me that the reporter felt that there was a lot of good stuff in the interview. So instead of a short 1 minute news piece, they’re going to do a 4 minute piece on a spotlight show they’ll run in a few weeks. Pretty sweet! I guess it’s always good to give them more good stuff than not enough. I got back to my room to enjoy some relaxation time on the balcony overlooking the lake. It was a gorgeous sunset and I played some toonz to set the mood. Later I joined my family for some dinner, and then came back to my room to prep for the big family photo we’d be taking the next day. I also was able to sit down and touch-up Kermit’s eyeballs. One of the 5 white paints I bought seemed to match perfectly! That night a hotel desk clerk named Troy came to work, and I was finally able to give him the signed Renji photo that I’ve had for him since the airline debacle in July! He was elated to finally be able to get it!

Thursday the 26th – FAMILY FOTOS! – Since it’s been quite a while since our entire family has sat for a family photo, my sister Peggy scheduled one for last July. But after two of my flights were canceled two days in a row, and I missed coming back for the Voices Against Cancer event in July, we had to reschedule the shoot for this trip. We all met at a studio in Tea, South Dakota and within 45 minutes we had shot a ton of great photos. I can’t wait to see how they turned out! Oddly enough, my sister Bonnie had just been down to the studios of KELO-TV earlier in the day to shoot a segment to promote her candle business! Two Wingerts at KELO-TV in two days! Wild! After the shoot we headed to the local Dairy Queen to grab a snack. It was a superbly gorgeous day! I headed back to my room to rest up a bit. That evening my folks and I met with my pals Scott Smith and Scott Maguire (from here on out known as “Smith” and “Maguire”) for dinner. They had a large SUV reserved for the trip to St. Paul on Sunday for the ELO concert, but the original gang of 5 had now dwindled down to a group of 3. So a giant SUV was no longer necessary. We thought that the RAV-4 I was presently renting may be adequate enough for the 3 of us. They looked it over and we decided to extend the rental on my RAV, and Smith would cancel the reservation for the big SUV. I printed a few more pics at Walgreens as a few more members of the hotel staff asked for some signed photos. I got back to my room and relaxed. What a great trip so far!

Friday the 27th – “HUTCH!” – This trip seemed to be all about seeing old friends, and I was loving it! I met my old pal Steve “Hutch” Hatt for lunch, and we spent a few hours laughing and telling tales of the old days. In Junior High, Steve and I were close pals and we both loved the show “Starsky & Hutch.” Since he had blonde hair, and I had dark curly hair, our classmates started calling us Starsky & Hutch. To this day he still calls me “Starsk” and I still call him “Hutch.” One of the greatest days of our friendship was when he and I were seated in the backseat of my Gran Torino while Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul drove us through Venice, California! After lunch I stopped by a restaurant to see my folks at their weekly coffee group. They wanted me to come by and meet their group. They were very curious about the business of Voice Acting, so I was happy to be able to answer all their questions. Then I drove out to the convention center and got my wristband for that weekend’s “Siouxpercon,” which coincidentally was going the same weekend I was back home for the ELO concert in St. Paul! I strolled around the convention floor for a few minutes and ran into a few old friends. It was terrific! Then I drove out to the airport to meet up with Smith so he could get on the rental agreement as a second driver. Since 3 of us would be driving to St. Paul on Sunday for the concert, but only 2 of us would be returning to Sioux Falls on Tuesday, (since I was flying back home from Minneapolis) Smith was the one that would be driving back to return the vehicle. I got back to my room and kept thinking about ways I could get that box of photos back to L.A., but I wasn’t coming up with a suitable solution. I don’t trust any of the shipping services with such valuable cargo, and I just don’t have room for them in my luggage on the plane. I’ll have to get them another time. On the way home I stopped at one of my old favorite food places. It was sure good to taste Taco John’s food again! Then it was off to the Olive Garden for my sister’s birthday, which also just coincidentally happened to fall during my trip. It was great having the family all together and I’m glad I happened to be in town for the gathering!

Saturday the 28th – SIOUXPERCON! – My old pal Dave Baumeister would be meeting me at Siouxpercon so we could run around and have some fun. I brought Kermit with me in a black plastic bag. I had intended to keep him bagged up “incognito” until after we had done some shopping, but within a few minutes of getting into the convention I whipped him out to say hi to a couple of old friends. It was fun being at the convention, and since I wasn’t there in an official capacity as a guest, I could roam around and do what I wanted. I had lots of fun with Kermit. I was supposed to meet up this week with my pal Dr. Doom, (Dr. Lou George) my Voices Against Cancer partner, but he called me to let me know that he’s been down with a bad cold this past week. He was going to try and get out to the convention but he wasn’t sure he’d make it. Dave and I went to grab lunch and chat, and after he left I headed back to the convention for a little while. On the way back to my room I got the RAV gassed up for our trip to St. Paul on Sunday. Later I had dinner with my folks, my sister and brother-in-law, and Maguire and his wife Patti. What fun! Phase 2 of my trip begins tomorrow!

Sunday the 29th – ELO IS A GO! – After getting all packed up I checked out of the Hyatt in Sioux Falls and headed to the local Fed Ex store to ship some stuff back home. They were supposed to open at noon so I got there at 11:50 to wait. But noon came and went, and nobody was at the store! I waited for several minutes after noon and it didn’t look like anyone was going to show up. Bizarre. I stopped by the local UPS store, but it said they were closed on Sundays. So I brought the box up to my parents’ house and asked if they would ship it for me on Monday. At the appointed time I picked up Smith and Maguire and we hit the road. It was a really fun drive and the time on the road to St. Paul really flew! Smith wanted to listen to an AM station when we passed New Ulm, Minnesota. KNUJ plays polka on Sundays in a show called “Polka Parade.” It sure was fun to listen to. Smith called the station and a real person actually answered! He requested a song, and within 10 minutes they played it! It was funny hearing “She’s Too Fat For Me” on the air, the song that Smith requested. I guess “real” radio is still alive and well in small towns! We stopped to get snacks at Albert Lea, Minnesota, and then we hit the road for St. Paul. We pulled in around 5:30pm and checked into our rooms. My old childhood friend Chris Valle lives right across from the hotel, so he walked over to join us for dinner. It was a great time reliving old memories and talking about the old days. Chris and I were in the same elementary, junior high and high school together. He and I used to love Muppets, monsters, “Star Trek,” and Laurel & Hardy. He’s one of my oldest friends, and we sure had a blast regaling Smith with our old stories. I headed back to my room to unpack and get settled. I asked the front desk about transportation to the airport early Tuesday morning. They didn’t have an airport shuttle, which I thought was bizarre. Furthermore, he said that the cabs in the area were very unreliable. So NOW what do I do? I have to leave the hotel for the airport by 6:45am, and I can’t ask Chris or Smith to give me a ride. To be honest, the St. Paul hotel wasn’t really my style at all. There were several things about it that I just didn’t like, and to not have suitable transportation options was just one of them. If there were any negative things about my trip, that hotel would have been one of them. To be honest, I felt the hotel was quite overrated and overpriced for what you got. The counter in the room was filled with “upsell” items that cost you an arm and a leg. Looking at the items for sale, one would assume that this hotel served a clientele of alcoholics! Plenty of alcohol to buy, but they were very chincy with soap and towels. Plus, the room was cluttered with unnecessary stuff. I had to move a bulky foot stool that was in front of a chair, as it was in my path to the bathroom. That could have been a disaster in the middle of the night. The staff wasn’t especially pleasant either. I just didn’t care for the hotel at all, but it was close to the concert venue so it would have to do for a few nights.

Monday the 30th – ELO #6! – Smith and I walked to a local lunch place and we were soon joined by Maguire and his brother, who lives in Minneapolis. We had a great lunch and even chatted with a few other people in the restaurant who were also there for the ELO concert. This would be my sixth time seeing them – The Hollywood Bowl in 2016, the L.A. Forum in 2018, the Excel Center in St. Paul in 2019, the Vet’s Aid concert in San Diego in 2023, and Palm Desert just a month ago. After a rocky start to the tour in Palm Desert, I was hoping that this show would be an improvement. My pal John Q. drove in from Wisconsin with his Starsky & Hutch Gran Torino and joined us for a bit. Then he drove us through the downtown streets of St. Paul for a little bit. He has a beautiful Gran Torino, and it was tough to decline his offer of driving his car through downtown. I just wasn’t that familiar enough with the area to be confident driving such a nice vehicle. And if something awful happened to it while I was driving it, I would never forgive myself! What a treat! Smith, Maguire and I walked to a store called Hymie’s Haberdashery. It was a wonderfully, quirky store with all kinds of varied history. We got a tour from a cool guy named Keith who filled us in on the store’s legend. We walked back to the room and I took a brief pre-concert nap. While the refrigerator in the room had plenty of liquor options to purchase, it sure didn’t do much for keeping my iced tea cold. This hotel was really disappointing. In the old days, if you wanted to go to a concert with friends, you met before the event and handed out the tickets to each of them. But now with this bizarre digital ticketing process, it’s quite a hassle for the lead person to disseminate the tickets to everybody digitally. You have to transfer it to them, and then they put it in their “wallet,” and it’s a huge mess that takes about 10 times as long to accomplish than just handing out paper tickets. Once we got to the concert venue it still proved to be a hassle, as some members of our group found out that the tickets hadn’t transferred to their wallets and they couldn’t get to their seats! I just don’t see how this digital ticketing system can last very long. It complicates things so much and slows everything down so much; especially if you’re in a sizable group of people. And everybody has to keep their phone with them at all times because “their phone is their ticket,” as the banner outside said. If this trend continues, I think my concert-going days are over. As a proud flip-phone owner, I refuse to play that “digital ticket” game. Too many problems. The opening band Rooney came out to play and they wowed the audience like that did when we saw them a month ago in Palm Desert. Unfortunately, several knuckleheads behind us talked through the entire thing…and they talked VERY loudly. I thought it was bizarre that they spent $300 for their seats only to sit there and have an inane conversation that they could have had at home for free. It was really annoying. I told Maguire if they kept talking through the ELO show there was going to be trouble. I didn’t want to pay those large ticket prices to listen to dunderheads talk. Luckily, when ELO started their conversation waned somewhat. The concert was great and we had wonderful seats. I will be seeing them twice (the last two shows on the tour) in late October. We walked back to the hotel with our stomachs rumbling, but the restaurant in the hotel was closed. WHAT!? Hungry guests coming back to the hotel after a concert and the restaurant wasn’t open? Not even the bar for some bar food? Smith and I grabbed a couple of gross sandwiches in the lobby and made do with that. This hotel really wasn’t to my taste at all. Lots of puzzling policies. Then I came back to my room and put the card from my camera into the USB port on the TV to see how my video had turned out. But I looked through the menu on the TV to access the USB port and there wasn’t an option for it. Apparently they disabled it so people wouldn’t bring in their own movies to watch, and instead order one of the hotel’s pay-per-view offerings. Never again St. Paul hotel! Knowing that I had to be up at 6 to head to the airport, I laid my head down at midnight. But I never sleep well on a night before a flight.

Tuesday the 1st – PERFECT END TO A PERFECT TRIP! – Smith, being the ever-helpful friend, agreed to get up early and drive me in the rented RAV to the airport at 6:45. Seeing as how I had no transportation options through the hotel, this seemed like the logical alternative – even though I hated asking him to get up that early. But Maguire’s brother lives close to the airport, so after dropping me off Smith would head over to have breakfast with them, and eventually head back to Sioux Falls to return the rental RAV. I did some last-minute packing and loaded everything out to check out. I really hope the St. Paul hotel sends me a survey. I can’t wait to let them know how I really felt about their overrated hotel. I got to the airport and checked in, and everything was on time! After the debacle last July, I’m a little bit nervous these days. I grabbed a couple of donuts and got on the plane. I slept all the way from Minneapolis to Denver! The layover was nice and it allowed me to get a pizza at Pizza Hut and eat that before boarding my flight home. I also slept on the entire flight home. It was nice to listen to toonz, pull my ELO cap down over my eyes and snooze. We got in right on time, just after noon, and I had the whole day ahead of me to get stuff done! My luggage arrived safely and it was the perfect ending to a wonderful trip! And the newly washed Gray Ghost was gorgeous! I met my house-sitter Emily and my pal Sara for lunch at Paty’s. It was a very hot day, as summer had come back for a week, so we enjoyed eating on the patio. I got back home to see Spook and got unpacked. Later I grabbed a nap and then got up to write Wally’s Week. What a week! What a trip!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Well THAT’S an easy gate number to remember!

We made it safe and sound!

An amazing South Dakota sunset with a duck flying over at no extra charge.

A wonderful late-night snack – a sloppy joe and a Coke in a glass bottle!

“Starsky” & “Hutch” together again – breaking bread!

At Siouxpercon we were amazed to see a Ghostbuster with a full sleeve of Muppet character tattoos!

One of my favorite things to do at conventions is to find people cosplaying as The Riddler and go ask for a picture with them, knowing full well that they have no idea that I’m the voice of the character in several different projects. In this instance this kid came up to me later and asked for a picture of his own. He said, “After you took the picture and walked off, my friends said, DO YOU KNOW WHO THAT WAS?!” What fun!