Part 78 ~ 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.

Last night I let Daughter handle bath and bedtime on her own. I wanted to get the Pharmacy trip over and done. I got lucky in that the Pharmacist working is the one I’ve been doing business with for over twenty years. I gave him my two prescriptions and Ben’s one, and asked him to fill any of the others that could be filled. He was able to fill all three of mine and three of Ben’s four. The last one had to be ordered and should be ready today or tomorrow. He’s also super fast, so I bought coffee and more dag-nabbit Hershey bars and was back in my car twenty minutes later.

I got home in time to give Ben a kiss goodnight and relax before sunset.

The setting sun dressed the moon in gossamer dusky pink and grey

I had a bit of worry over Older Daughter last night. The text message I always receive when she’s safely at work never came. I texted her a bunch of times, I called her a bunch of times, I even tried calling the facility. No answer, no answer, no answer… I was texting with Younger at the same time and she was trying to keep me from freaking out. Older Daughter finally called me around 11:15, nearly an hour later than usual. Work was crazy busy and her coworkers had put together a potluck for her. Very sweet! After talking to her I took my pill and waited for sleep to take me. It was after midnight… a long day.

Another Bounce-free morning. Instead, he slammed the side door closed and yelled “Gramma come living room!” I asked him to come get in bed with me. Nope! “Gramma! Living room!” Dang…

When I got to the living room, I saw that he was fully dressed. He’d added a flat brim cowboy hat to the regular ensemble. Flying Spaghetti Monster save me! He was pacing and scripting. When I got my eyes to focus enough to see what time it was, I was not at all surprised to see that it was 4:02. Another Casa Cuckoo day had begun.

He would sit on the couch for a few minutes, then he was up pacing again, then back to the couch, then more pacing. When it started getting light outside he added forays into the back yard to his routine. He was in a good mood, with lots of energy, I was grumbley, tired and barely functioning.

The alarm let me know it was time for meds, I was happy to dope his face. The pacing was making my already tired brain, completely exhausted. I uncovered Sven and turned on his lights.

Daughter texted at 7:00 that she’d clocked out and was getting a ride home. When she got here she started telling me about the surprise potluck. Special permission was obtained because they’ve been banned from potlucks and food deliveries because of The Kootie… infection control. Anyway, the Big Dumb Dog was not only doing the Whiney Wiggle, he was barking at her, then coming to bark at me. I had to use my Stern voice to get him to stop barking and he was still “talking” back at me. He was quiet for a whole thirty seconds so Daughter petted him and greeted him. She then asked Ben to her room and for a wonder, he went.

I went straight to my room for Horizontal Time. I wasn’t in there long before my body hit the OFF switch and I was snoozing.

At 10:00 Ben Bounced me and demanded my relocation. I heard Daughter calling for him to pick up his words from her bed, I sent him to do that then went to the living room. Daughter came out with her stuff, told Ben to let me sleep and sent me away. No arguments from me, back to bed I went.

I didn’t let myself go back to sleep. I know, stupid, right? I kept expecting Ben to come back in and Bounce me or to demand I write more words. It took me over an hour to fully wake up, I was nodding in and out. As my mind drifted it caught a thought and I hung on. A grocery pick up at WallyWorld. I had noticed they had time slots open again but I’d been getting stuff at the store where my pharmacy is. They’re a little pricier, but no lines and pretty well stocked. Anyway, I scheduled a pickup for tomorrow at 10:00am and filled that cart up. I needed to get more of Ben’s chicken nuggets and they’re not sold at the pharmacy/grocery store, so I was very happy to score that slot.

A little after noon I went out to the living room and told Daughter about the pickup and she added some stuff to the order. Ben was stabbing boxes. I asked if she’d done the half Adderall, she looked at her watch and grabbed the meds box. Both Ben and Zeus were getting more and more wound up. It’s like we aren’t allowed to speak to each other, only to them. I went back to my room. Ben followed a few minutes later.

Since Ben was with me, Daughter went to her room. As I knew he would, Ben commanded me to the living room about fifteen minutes later. So, back to the couch I went. I glanced in at Sven, he had moved again and his eyes were open. I opened the screen, said hello and stroked his jaw a little. I also put some greens and fresh blueberries on his plate.

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The tile under his “house” has a very low powered heat pad under it. Gotta be careful about any heating element that reptiles can come into contact with. They can easily burn their skin. The tile feels like it’s absorbed heat from the sun and is cooling off. It won’t burn him.

Around 1:30 Ben decided to do the chalk thang. He did the chalk for an hour or so, (meds at 2:00 because I have alarms on my phone) then got on the couch with me and did the tablet thing, while munching on “Blue Ramen” and asking for juice every five seconds.

3:45 and Ben started getting restless and pacing. Then he started stabbing boxes again, all to the opening tune of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in Ben’s own unique vocalizations.

After he had stabbed all the boxes two or three times and left them scattered all over three rooms, he was ready to take a break and watch the Garfield Movie on the tablet. Of course it was on a channel we didn’t have (parental controls ON, don’t need to buy and/or rent $75.00 worth of movies twice to learn that lesson), but Free Trial. I’ve gotten burned by the Free Trial when Younger does it, because she doesn’t tell me. Me? I cancel that stuff! So Ben got to watch that lasagne loving feline and all was calm and peaceful again.

It is coming up on dinnertime and since I’m pretty sure Daughter is sleeping, I better figure out what to feed HRH. Then take him outside and hose him off, or run a bath… I haven’t decided. The evening countdown has begun. Nothing happening tonight except my date with the sunset.

Ben was singing this song and I thought it would make a great exit song

Enjoy your yourself every chance you get! Come on by tomorrow, Daughter is off work tonight so she’ll be awake and literally anything could happen. Whatever happens, there will be laughter.

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HUGS!

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