{"id":3727,"date":"2016-12-19T06:09:25","date_gmt":"2016-12-19T14:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/wallysweek\/?p=3727"},"modified":"2019-04-26T15:55:36","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T15:55:36","slug":"december-19-december-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/december-19-december-25\/","title":{"rendered":"December 19 – December 25 (2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK<\/h3>\n

Here’s my essential oil diffuser which was churning out a nice cinnamon smell on Christmas Eve, along with a warm, pleasant glow.<\/p>\n

\"ww_20161219_00\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After hearing Elton John’s “Step Into Christmas”<\/span> on Christmas Across the Lands, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I LOVE this song!<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/wallysweek\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/step_into_christmas.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Monday the 19th, Tuesday the 20th, and Wednesday the 21st \u2013 HELL CON\u2019T! \u2013<\/span> Because of a whopping bout with the flu and bronchitis, I didn\u2019t leave my house (and barely my bed) from last Friday morning to Wednesday night. The body aches were the worst I\u2019ve ever experienced, especially the lower back.  My entire suprasternal notch area felt like it was on fire, my head felt like it wanted to burst, and I getting my body temperature regulated was an impossibility.   Luckily I had seen my doctor last Friday morning and gotten on Levaquin so the cough was going away and there was no danger it would turn into pneumonia again, like in 2014.  My assistant Sara came over to help out with a few things and I really appreciated that. Finally, on Wednesday night\/Thursday morning, I was starting to feel better; at least partially human again.  I typed out Wally\u2019s Week, worked around the house, and actually made a good meal to enjoy while watching another episode of \u201cBarnaby Jones.\u201d  But when it came time to go to sleep, I couldn\u2019t.  I was literally TIRED of sleeping.<\/p>\n

Thursday the 22nd \u2013 NOT BACK TO FULL SPEED! \u2013<\/span> When I got up around 2 in the afternoon I decided to get out of the house. I met Sara at Paty\u2019s and I had one of their Southwest salads on my mind.  But once it arrived in front of me I managed to eat about half of it.  My appetite is still not quite back yet, but it did feel good to get out. Also, while we sat there, I started losing my energy.  My full strength isn\u2019t quite back yet.  I went to CVS to pick up a few prescriptions, and then I went to get some groceries I needed.  There were a ton of people out and about, scurrying around before the holidays.  I came back home to relax and found out that my favorite Christmas radio show, \u201cChristmas Across the Lands,\u201d wouldn\u2019t be on the air in my area this holiday.  I was crushed.  It\u2019s a terrific 12 hour radio special that usually airs every year (twice in a row) on KRLA-AM.  But for some reason they\u2019re not airing it this year. I had been in touch with the show\u2019s host and producer Randy Sherwyn, who delivered the bad news.  Well, that\u2019s why God made the internet.  Who needs terrestrial radio when you can find it on the internet!  I grabbed an evening nap, and when I woke up I did some laundry, and worked around the house.  I stripped off all the sheets and bedding from my \u201csick\u201d bed and put on all new, clean bedding.  There\u2019s nothing like the feeling of fresh bedding after you\u2019ve been through what I had been through.  I made some dinner and watched another episode of \u201cBarnaby Jones\u201d before bed.  Just as I was turning in, it had started to sprinkle.  We were going to get some more rain for the next few days, but luckily it\u2019s expected to be clear by Christmas Eve day.<\/p>\n

Friday the 23rd \u2013 LET\u2019S GET BUSY! \u2013<\/span> Later in the day I got up to have some soup, and I chatted with my folks for a bit.  Then I got back in bed to wait for the big rainstorm to arrive.  I can always get some good quality sleep when it\u2019s raining outside.  But instead of resting to a nice, relaxing rainstorm, I had to leap from the bed to close the windows.  It was blowing and raining like crazy!  It was not your average, gentle rainstorm.  This was a monsoon!  Rain was blowing in my window!  When I finally got up later in the evening I decided to occupy my time by doing some things that needed to be done around the house.  For about a year I\u2019ve been meaning to clean out my James Bond cabinet (it was very dusty) and my anime cabinet (it was too full!).  Better late than never, I guess.  I have two cabinets in my room that feature toys based on characters I\u2019ve voiced throughout my career.  One cabinet features characters from original animation shows (like \u201cAvengers: Earth\u2019s Mightiest Heroes,\u201d \u201cThe Garfield Show,\u201d \u201cBatman: Arkham Asylum,\u201d etc.) and the other cabinet features characters I\u2019ve performed in anime shows (like \u201cBleach,\u201d \u201cTiger and Bunny,\u201d \u201cAstro Boy\u201d and others).  The anime cabinet was so full of toys it was really difficult for most people to lock in on exactly what it was they were looking at. So it needed not only a good cleaning, but a complete re-design.  I brought a box up from the garage and tossed out about a fourth of the anime toys in the cabinet.  I saved the ones I wanted to keep and set them aside.  I cleaned the cabinet inside and out; top to bottom.  It looked great.  Then I cleaned off the toys I wanted to keep with a moist cloth, and replaced them in the cabinet in a more presentational way.  It took a while, but it looked great.  When I finished that cabinet I went over to Denny\u2019s to get some food to go.  When I got back I started in on my James Bond cabinet, taking out all the figures and props, cleaning the cabinet top to bottom, cleaning off all the pieces, and replacing them in the cabinet.  That cabinet wasn\u2019t overflowing with stuff, so it just needed a good cleaning, but not a redesign.  It was still a little sprinkly and cold outside, but it was still wintery and nice.  I settled in to watch \u201cBarnaby Jones\u201d and enjoy my food.  Since the website I\u2019d be using to hear \u201cChristmas Across the Lands\u201d is Florida based, that meant the show would be 3 hours ahead of what I\u2019m used to.  It started at 9am Florida time, which meant that it would start at 6am my time on Christmas Eve.  So before bed, I hit up the website to hear the show\u2019s open.  Ironically, the first two songs he played are my two favorite Christmas songs in that order!  He started the show with \u201cThe Most Wonderful Time of the Year\u201d by Andy Williams, and then he followed it up with my second favorite Christmas song \u201cStep Into Christmas\u201d by Elton John. It was amazing!  I listened to the first hour of the show and then hit the hay.  But not before witnessing a gorgeous Christmas Eve day sunrise!<\/p>\n

Saturday the 24th \u2013 CHRISTMAS EVE! \u2013<\/span> As is my tradition on Christmas Eve, I take Roxy over to our church to check out the Living Nativity.  They always have a wonderful array of animals; sheep, goats, bunnies, chickens, donkeys, etc., and Roxy loves meeting every one of them.  But it was very cold out, and even though I was bundled up pretty good, I was starting to get chilled pretty badly.  Sara stopped by to watch the action and got some great pics of Roxy nose to nose with a sheep.  When it ended Sara and I went over to DuPar\u2019s to grab dinner.  I was still feeling a bit low-energy, but as we waited for our meals I looked to my right and there was my old pal Chuck McCann standing there!  It was great seeing him again.  I had so much I wanted to talk about, but Chuck didn\u2019t have his hearing aids in so he heard very little of what Sara and I said.  But it was still a really nice Christmas surprise to see him.  I went home to nap for a few hours, and then I got up for the Christmas Eve Midnight Candlelight service at my church.  I met my pal Josh there and we enjoyed the service.  When I got home after the service I laid back down on the couch to rest, but my back-up battery system for my computer started beeping again.  It set off an alarm about a week ago to let me know the battery contained inside (which is used to keep the computer going in the event of a power outage) was losing its ability to hold a charge.  So I ordered another one and got it in a few days ago.  It was letting me know again that it was about to die.  Not wanting to handle it then and there, I just shut the whole thing off and took a nap.  When I got up around 4am I unplugged the entire system and replaced the battery.  Then I did some work around the house, and set about making my traditional Christmas Eve Chef Boy Ar Dee pizza\u2026something I do every year.  But because my full appetite still isn\u2019t back yet, I made half the usual amount.  And even still I only ended up eating half of THAT!  While it baked I listened to more \u201cChristmas Across the Lands.\u201d  I went to bed with my pizza, watched a really good episode of the old BBC show \u201cThe New Avengers,\u201d and hit the hay.<\/p>\n

Sunday the 25th \u2013 MERRY CHRISTMAS! \u2013<\/span> Though my eyes shot open around noon, I lounged around all day in bed with the pets.  One of the symptoms of the bug I had was a \u201clack of interest\u201d symptom.  I could have gone outside or done something, but I simply had no interest.  So I just laid there meditating, resting, playing with the pets, and feeling thankful.  I did manage to sleep a few more hours until 5pm, when I had to get up and feed the kids.  I answered some e-mails, found out that George Michael died (sad!), and got ready for Christmas dinner with Sara and my pals Scott and Vickie Sebring. But at dinner I was kind of \u201cout of it\u201d still.  I don\u2019t know if it was all the medication in my system, or if it was a symptom of what I had.  But I just seemed to zone out a lot.  But it was a nice dinner and it was very mellow.  We stopped by the Christmas House in Burbank on the way back to my house, just to check it out one last time for the year.  Then I got home and napped on the couch until 2am, when I got up to feed the pets.  Then I walked Roxy on our late night stroll through the neighborhood, but it was really cold.  Luckily I was bundled up pretty well and I enjoyed myself.  When I got back inside I did some work around the house, heated up my leftover Chef Boy Ar Dee pizza and watched another episode of \u201cBarnaby Jones\u201d before bed.  Christmas was officially over, and it was definitely a weird one.  Hopefully next year\u2019s will be a less insane.<\/p>\n

And how was YOUR Christmas??!!<\/p>\n

PIX FROM THE WEEK<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The gorgeous Christmas Eve day sunrise outside my window.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Roxy<\/a>

Roxy and Spook enjoy a nap by the fire on Christmas Eve.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Though<\/a>

Though I wasn’t feeling well, Roxy came up to give me a much-needed hug. She’s the best!<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wallysweek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallyontheweb.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}