Part 61 ~ 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.

Beautiful sunset last night! Fast moving clouds that were ever-changing, then for 10 minutes…glorious color (I’m rather proud that I got the panorama setting to work)

I got a second wind after Ben went to sleep and I was awake until after midnight.

Then at 2:30 came The Bounce and the demand “Gramma come living room!” Oh, I craved more sleep, I felt like crying. I didn’t get up right away, hoping he’d let me rest. No dice, probably because our internet went down. Stupid internet.

At 3:30 I got up. I couldn’t sleep, he wouldn’t let me, so I might as well sit in the living room. Ben was very upset at the internet not working. He asked me about every 30 seconds if it was “all better”…

The internet finally came back on at 5:30. We’re used to it dropping now and then, usually around 8 or 9 in the morning. We figure it’s the high demand as people sign into work or school… or maybe our ISP just sucks. It’s the main one in the area.

Daughter got up at 6:30, right after I gave Ben his meds and uncovered Mr Sven Dragon. She kept saying she didnt want to go do the physical and drug test, should’ve rescheduled… I told her it’s better to just get it over with.

We left at 7:15, just wrapped a blanket (it was chilly this morning) around Ben’s shoulders and walked to the car. He asked if we were going to the store. I told him we were dropping Mommy off at an office and going back home. He put the window down and grooved on the scenery. It’s the first time he’s been away from the house since March 13th.

After dropping Daughter off, he said “Time to go home.” I told him good job! He was right, time to go home. When we got home, he came in the house and sat down and started watching his tablet. Whew! Success!

To people who don’t live with an autistic child, this probably seems like much ado about nothing, but it IS a big deal. Especially since he’s been so edgy lately, so on the verge of an explosion. He could’ve just as easily decided he didn’t want to come back home and taken off down the street, or started kicking the door once we were inside. I’m glad it went well and I praised him a LOT.

Daughter texted around 9:00 to say that she was waiting to do the drug test but couldn’t pee. I hate it when that happens. My pain doc tests me periodically, and I always use the bathroom before I leave the house, so sometimes I’m stuck there, chugging water. Sometimes they just let me go. I’ve never had a questionable test result.

She texted again at 10:30 to tell me she’d finally peed and was now on the way to the Vampires (phlebotomists) to get her labs done. I was in the middle of getting Ben’s meds ready. I told her to let me know when to come get her.

She texted back about 10 minutes later that she was done. I told Ben “Let’s go get Mom.” He ran to his room for his vest, tie and jacket. I told him he didn’t need all that, we were just picking her up and bringing her home. He carried the stuff out to the car with him. Whatever. We went and got her and came home, no problems.

She took over Living Room Duty and I went to my room for Horizontal Time. Ben went back to doing the chalk thang.

I went through my email, a little WP, played a game, watched a video… the drive had woken me up, even though I was tired.  Around 2:00 I was starting to feel the warm, drifty feeling of a doze.

Then there was a bedquake because Ben had Bounced onto my bed with a “Hi Gramma!” I said hello back and checked the time… 3:30! Nice! Another hour and a half to add to my tally. That brought me almost 4 hours total. I’ve been surviving on 4 hours, usually broken, for a while now.

Ben settled in with some popcorn and his tablet. He hung out with me, eating popcorn, watching his tablet and occasionally asking me to open a juice for him, until about 5:00. Very chill, very nice. I was able to get my eyes to focus, which was also nice.

Sven just laid in one spot all day. He didn’t want to eat, he didn’t get Judgey. Maybe he was just having a chill day too. He was mostly yellow, so I’m not going to worry (too much) about it.

Today was a very much needed, relaxing day. It started WAY too early, and the internet being down was worrisome, but those are the only bad things that happened today.

I’m going to leave you with this short video from the Redwoods. If you’re ever able to see them for yourself, I strongly, strongly encourage you to do it. Two thousand year old trees are indescribable. The forest is breathtaking and peaceful… magical.

 

I’ll see you tomorrow, thanks for hanging out with us, especially this morning, I was worried about the drive, but your good thoughts and support helped. I believe that! I hope you all have some peace and chill! Ride the Zen, take care of yourselves, and come hang out some more!

 

Hugs!