Part 45 ~ 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.

I survived my trip out in public last night. It wasn’t too horrible. I stopped to put gas in the car and while I was pumping the gas, I was thinking about how the price of oil has been rock bottom, why is gas still $2.60/gal?? I know a lot of that is taxes, but still… I’m so glad my Prius doesn’t gobble gas!

I went to CVS, got the benadryl, got the wine Daughter wanted and I found a “Hello Kitty” cafeteria plate, so I bought that for Ben.

Dear, sweet Ben, bless his little heart… Bounced me a little before 4:00. He got under the blankets, cuddled up, farted, then got up and took off. Nice… I’m guessing he went to see if Avatar was playing (it was), or go to the bathroom. Or maybe, both. He came back and got in bed again, then got up again.

Then I hear BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! The little dear was kicking the door. I flew out of bed and into the living room. He saw me and said “What are you doing?”   I said “Yeah, please don’t kick the door. Do you want me to come in the living room with you?” He said yes and sat on the couch. I covered him with a couch blanket and told him all he had to do was ask, not kick the door. Sheesh!

I went and got his tablet from his room, grabbed my stuff from my room and went to sit on the couch. It was 4:45. And so starts another day at Casa Cuckoo…

Daughter wandered out about a half hour later, and went straight to the bathroom. When she got out, she asked Ben if he wanted to go to her room? He jumped up to get his chalk, she grabbed his tablet and off they went. I stayed on the couch another 5-10 minutes to see if Ben was gonna come back out, then I had my turn in the bathroom, got more coffee, made another pot and went to my  room.

Daughter wandered down the hall at 6:15. I told her I was planning on bringing his meds at 6:30. She said she had already taken the medicine box into her room and already doped his face. Wow! Even earlier than I’ve done it. I guess he was super amped in her room.

It was 6:30, so I got up and went to uncover Sven and turn his lights on. Then I went back to bed…

And then the alarm for Ben’s 10:30 meds was going off. Whoa! I konked out hard! These days, I sleep when I can. Or when my body gives me no choice.

On the way to the bathroom, I took a peek at Sven. Oh, my! What’s with the black beard?? Someone was unhappy about being alone in the living room all morning, I guess.

I knew just how to fix that! I had the power to turn that black to yellow… shower time…

At 11:30 Ben came out of Daughter’s room to use the bathroom. I followed to make sure he didn’t mess with the temperature of Sven’s shower, it was time for Sven to get out anyway. Ben came out of the bathroom and I grabbed Sven and put him back in his terrarium with his fresh food (arugula and 3 blueberries, he needs to eat his greens!). I asked Ben if he was going back to Mommy’s room or if he wanted to stay in the living room. “Living room!” Alrighty then.

I went to clean up the chalk in Daughter’s room and get his tablet. He also had chicken and french fries??? I guess Daughter ordered food while I was asleep. (Dang!! I must have been OUT to sleep through that!) Daughter was sleeping. The noise of me putting the chalk into the bucket roused her a little, but she rolled over and continued to sleep.

I brought everything to HRH, perched on the couch and went to grab my stuff. Zeus was underfoot the entire time. Occasionally I step on him, he yelps, I tell him it’s his own fault and to quit following all the time. Does he listen?? Nope!

12:00 alarm reminded me that it was time for half dose Adderall. That reminded me to make sure he hadn’t missed his 10:30 meds. All was as it should be and his Adderall was given. Ben settled on the couch with his tablet and a blanket over his head.

At 1:00 Daughter stumbled out to the bathroom apologizing. WHY DO WE APOLOGIZE FOR SLEEPING? I told her not to be silly, I had slept too. Ben is the only one with limitless energy. I think he must suck it out of us.

I asked her how her hand was. The swelling is going down, which is awesome! I told her that the more I’d been thinking about the steroids, the more I was worried about her immune system if she wound up needing them. I was very happy to hear that it wouldn’t be necessary. We agreed that another night of rest would be best for her hand, that if she used it tonight, she’d just cause the inflamed tissue to become more inflamed. WHY DOES SHE FEEL GUILTY FOR CALLING OUT OF WORK TO LET HER HAND HEAL?

She went back to her room. I went and got my tablet for Ben and plugged his in to charge, Zeus followed and Ben supervised.

Around 2:00 Daughter came out to take over couch sitting duties. She had me take another picture of her hands to send to her supervisor at work. Honestly, as long as it’s not the Corona, she shouldn’t need a reason. I really hope some changes in the workplace attitude come from this pandemic! Think about the title of the “HR” departments. Human Resources… companies think of their employees as just another tool or piece of equipment. That needs to change!

Okay, Tangent Over, back to Casa Cuckoo. Ben was waiting for me in my room, but he was standing next to my side of the bed, looking guilty. I asked him what he was doing. He said “Fix the bed” Hmm… Yes, my mattress did seem a bit off. I asked him if he’d been jumping on my bed, or standing and falling over? He said “Yes I did!” which is a scripted line from somewhere. I reminded him that jumping or falling over on the bed is dangerous, he could get hurt. Wasted breath… I fixed the mattress and laid down. Daughter came in with his 2:00 meds and went back to couch sittin’.

An hour or so later I went out to use the bathroom. Ben had been running around the house, playing. He had taken my old Eeyore and my new Eeyore, but I didn’t say anything at the time. Gotta pick my battles. Anyway, I was surprised by the scene on the couch

Why were they all armed? Were we under attack? What happened to Hello Kitty? And why is Superdog wearing a green bowler hat?

These are the questions I thought, but didn’t ask. It’s better to just accept that things are a little… umm… different at Casa Cuckoo.  I did my business and went back to my room. Ben continued to play all over the house.

Around 5:00 he sat next to me with his tablet paused on a picture of the Warner Brothers studio lot, from the intros. He said “Gramma? Like this.” What followed was several minutes of a Who’s On First routine, with him using hand gestures and squinting his eyes, and me trying desperately to understand what he wanted from me. There was a red heart and a red bracelet in the explanation, but it only confused me more.

He brought me a paper plate and said “Draw it!” You’ve all seen how well I draw… Ben was getting more frustrated and started telling me to get dressed and go to the store. NOOOOOO!!! We’d had a good day. Not now!

I took the paper plate and began to try to replicate the image on his tablet (wishing for the millionth time for a dag-nabbit printer). Whenever I thought I was done, he pointed out more things for me to add. So I did my best. Then he said “Red marker”. Okay, I got the red marker. He said “Like this.” and sorta waved his hand over part of the drawing. I offered the marker to him, but you can guess what he said… Yep! “Gramma to do it.” So I scribbled red over all the buildings, with him pointing out places I missed. When he was satisfied with the red, he said “Cut it out.” meaning trim off the excess paper plate and make it rectangular. Okay, I can do that. I did that. He said “Thank you, Gramma.” and started watching something else.

I don’t know if my finished product was what he wanted or if by watching me, he realized that was the best he was gonna get, and gave up.

His “orange chicken” just came out of the oven. Night meds soon. Time for me to wish you all a good evening. Thanks for sharing the day with us. It was a good day!

It’s not morning, but let’s leave with this anyway

See ya tomorrow.

Hugs!