Part 33 ~ The Adventures of King Ben & Zeus the Big Dumb Dog

If you missed the start of this series, you can find it here. A lot of things will be the same or very similar.

After Daughter was at work, I took my sleeping pill and read some of the latest on Harry and Meghan, preparing to sleep. I remember making a wish at 11:11PM but that’s my last memory, so I was probably out by 11:30. I keep trying for earlier, but I have yet to reach that goal.

The Bounce was followed by an immediate request for help with the movie. “Turn movie on!” Aha, let’s see if the Roku app works. I opened the app and attempted to set the TV on DVD mode. From my bed. Apparently it worked. Hurray! But I didn’t know for sure and Ben was calling “Gramma, come living room” So I got up to see what he needed and to use the loo. He wanted me to sit on couch but I told him it was too early and I was going back to bed, so I did. He stayed in the living room.

If his SpideySense told him I was starting to doze he’d run in, jump on the bed and run out again. Just before 4:00 he decided to get under the blankets. I made him take his shoes off first. (For some reason known only to him, he was completely dressed) I was hoping I could really doze, and I did except the time he punched me in the back and cackled maniacally, or the time he smacked me in the shoulder with a juice, wanting me to open it.

At 4:45 he told me “Gramma come living room!” I told him I was tired, it was still dark… couldn’t we just rest some more? He told me “I ready go living room.”

Okay Benbob Crazypants… I went to the living room.

Daughter texted and arrived at the usual time. I asked her how the trainee was. She told me they worked “West” (instead of the East wing where they were supposed to work). I asked her why? Short staffed, again…still…as usual. I asked how the trainee was. She said the girl knows Younger Daughter, she recognized Older right away. I didn’t recognize the gal’s name. We’ll have to see if Younger remembers her.

Older asked Ben if he wanted to go lay down in her room. He said “Okay” and got up and went. There’s a shock! I followed Daughter down the hall and took a left at Albuquerque? No, at my room, and got into bed. I was asleep within minutes.

The 10:30 med alarm woke me up. I had that “what year is it” feeling, so I just listened for a minute for any sounds to clue me into who was where and the mood of the house. I heard Daughter laugh, so I knew she was still awake. I didn’t hear Ben, so that meant he was calm and watching his tablet with earbuds in.

I got up and got his meds and took them to Daughter’s room. She said he had taken a nap too, but he was awake now. She pulled the blankets off his head and I gave him his meds. Then he jumped up and ran to the living room.

I got my stuff and joined Ben in the living room, stopping to say hello to Sven. I had to laugh at the cilantro hanging out of his mouth.

I got him some greens (arugula from Younger, when I dropped her off yesterday) and blueberries, put his bowl in the terrarium and grabbed the cilantro hanging from his mouth.  He ate a couple blueberries and went back to his “pouting corner”.

Ben decided it was Arts & Crafts time around 11:30 and wanted me to draw some things for him. I tried to talk him into drawing them himself. I bet you can guess what his response was… Yep! “I need help”. SIGH I think I’ve mentioned a bazillion times that I can’t draw a decent stick figure and yet the King commands, so I attempt. He watched my efforts, thanked me for the final products and got up to play with his chalk.

Can’t say I blame him. An artist, I am not.

Around 1:00 I gave in to Sven’s sad pouting and put him in the shower.

Spoiled but happy Dragon. He wasn’t very happy with the toothbrush. He ran to the other side of the tub, so I quit and let him bliss out. While he was blissing I moved the arugula and few blueberries he’d missed around in his bowl, hoping to get him to eat his greens. When he was back in his terrarium, he went right to the bowl. I saw him with a mouthful of greens and said “Ha ha! Made you eat your greens.” He just gave me the side-eye glare, then went to his rock.

At least he’s out of the “pouting corner”

Ben continued to do his thing with the chalk with one short break to nom some Oreo cookies. I think he actually ate the whole cookie this time instead of just licking the filling off.

Daughter came out of her room and I hadn’t even realized it was 2:00. This is why I have alarms set on my phone. I lost track of time Before, it’s way worse now. Especially when the days are cloudy like they’ve been. It’s all LimboTime.  Daughter got herself ready to take over, and I went to my room and got settled. After going on the great Red Heart search for Ben and letting the Big Dumb Dog out, twice.

Everything was calm and chill for the rest of the afternoon. Ben came in a few times and flopped on the bed, messed with Zeus and just hung out watching PJ Masks. Then he’d wander back out to his Mama. She wandered in once and handed me her phone. I assumed she was ordering food, and she was, only it was from the grocery store. I handed the phone back telling her I couldn’t think of anything we needed, then told her three things as she walked away. Ugh! My brain is mush!

I asked Daughter about her trainee again, trying to figure out which of Younger’s friends this was. Older told me the girl’s full name. Earlier she had just used her last name and that wasn’t familiar to me. When she told me the gal’s first name, I immediately texted Younger and asked if it was THE girl. She confirmed. I won’t go into all the details (privacy, laziness…) but while they were in High School, Younger got a text disturbing enough to prompt a drive to this girl’s appartment complex. Younger couldn’t remember the unit number, we’d only ever dropped her off. Everyone usually hung out at our house. Anyway, Younger became increasingly more frightened and called the police. They arrived, almost broke into the wrong unit, found the correct unit and escorted this girl to the hospital with superficial wounds on her throat. Younger and the girl fell out of contact as the girl worked on her problems, eventually getting pregnant and raising her daughter.

Now Older Daughter is training this girl for the next couple of weeks, and doesn’t remember her or the incident. It’s probably better that way, but WOW! What a small world.

Daughter is cooking steak for Ben and the sun is finally peeking from the clouds. I think I’ll end for the day and enjoy the calm and the setting sun. Here’s the song that just popped into my head

Thanks for stopping by and hanging out on this chilled out day. Come on by tomorrow, we never know what’s going to happen. Take care of yourselves, and remember I’m here to help in any way I can.

Here comes the sun, and I say… it’s alright