Part 95 ~ 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.

We left with Ben asleep on the couch yesterday afternoon… I woke him up just before 5pm. I was gentle about it, sitting on the floor next to where he was laying. I told him he needed to get up and have his bath, eat a little more and then we’d take Mommy to work.

He was grumpy. He didn’t want to cooperate. I’ll skip the details and go straight to the facts. He had a short soak in the tub, took his meds and went to bed. He was asleep by 6:00pm… again.

Younger Daughter brought Kris over for her injection and stayed so I could drive Older to work. I got back home, hugs and goodbyes and thanks, then I locked up, covered Sven and turned his lights off and prepared for sunset… no clouds last night.

All during sunset I was trying to decide whether to eat something and if so, what? I had eaten a large order of fries earlier and I woke up with my GERD acting up yesterday morning from the burrito eaten the night before. I decided to skip the food. I wasn’t really hungry and I had eaten… true it was just fries, but something is better than nothing. I took my pill an prepared for bed.

I didn’t wind up going to sleep until almost 11:00. Older was texting, Younger was texting me, Sophie Cat was demanding loves… I was sleepy and very popular. Gotta give the kitty and the kiddies (even if they ARE adults) their loves.

This morning I didn’t even get Bounced. Just a voice yelling at me “Gramma! Gramma! Come living room!” That was approximately 2:30am. I got up and before I could sit down he was telling me to get his water bottle. So I got the bottle and the tablet, filled the bottle and gave him both. I sat down and had to get up again. “More water!” he said and handed me the bottle, which he’d unscrewed. I pointed out that since he was able to open it, he was able to fill it himself. HRH did not deign to reply.

Finally settled on the couch, I texted Daughter to let her know we were up. She was tired and bummed that she still had four and a half hours of work left.

Ben was feeling much better this morning. I could tell just by him chugging all the water, but then he started eating leftover nuggets. WOW! Drinking water AND eating without being pushed to do it? I was thinking he finally kicked whatever kootie it was that made him so sick. If it hasn’t been two full weeks, it’s been close.

Ben got up to play with some dominoes. They aren’t the game kind, no dots; they’re the set them up and knock them over kind. Him sitting and setting up all the dominoes was further proof he was feeling better. While he was doing the domino thing I was trying to read email and WP posts but my eyes kept involuntarily closing. Ben would yell “Wake up, Gramma!” I’d tell him I was awake, I just had my eyes closed. Then he’d yell “Open your eyes, Gramma!” So bossy!

Eventually the 6:30 med alarm made me be more functional. Especially when I went to dump the morning meds into the crusher, only to find that Daughter hadn’t loaded up the slots. DANG IT! I had to actually look at the bottles and read what he takes and how much of each. I was pretty sure it was a half pill of each med… Seroquel, trazodone and clonidine and a whole Adderall. I was correct, verified by the bottles and Daughter when she texted me back. (I texted her to verify the dosage and to let her know I was giving him the Adderall today). I doped his face and got up to uncover Sven and turn his lights on.

I sat back down with Ben to wait for the time to leave to pick up Daughter. He started to get sleepy at 7:00am again today. I’m so glad Daughter is off tonight so we dont have to worry about him going to sleep early or falling back to sleep after his morning meds. (It’s still so bizarre to me that he gets tired after taking amphetamines) Anyway, 7:15 I put on my shoes, grabbed my wallet and a pair of socks and shoes for Ben. I put his shoes on and told him “Let’s go.” and we left.

We got home and braved our way past the wiggling, whining Big Dummy (we’d been gone twenty whole minutes) and I went to drop my stuff in my room. Ben followed me and laid down on my bed. I thought that was an excellent idea and joined him. Daughter got something to eat and went to her room. When Ben saw Daughter going to her room, he ordered me to the living room. Aw, dang!

Sven had moved and appeared to be eyeing his plate. I got him some fresh food just in case he was feeling better too.

I took the one picture and left him alone. I didn’t want his beard to get all black. I sat back down on the couch with Ben and Zeus and wrote an email. I was still pretty tired, so I stayed away from my post… that dreaded Backspace Button… When I was getting ready to send the email I glanced over at Ben, he was asleep. SCORE! I sent the email and went to tell Daughter he was out and I was going to my room.

I was surprised to be awoken by the 10:30 med alarm. It took me a full minute to figure out why the alarm was going off and what I had to do. I had been sleeping good. I could’ve easily rolled over and gone right back to sleep, but Ben’s med…

I talked to him as I got coffee. I was trying to wake him up gently so he wouldn’t be grumpy. We’d been having a good day so far, I wanted to keep it that way. He woke up, sat up and I gave him the pill to swallow. Then I checked to see if Sven had eaten anything… he hadn’t even moved anymore.

We just hung out in the living room. Ben ate some more, played a little more, watched his tablet and demanded a soda. I gave him the half Adderall at noon and we hung out some more.

Daughter came out at 2:30 to take over. I gave my report then went to put my basket-full of clothes in the washer. A lot of the stuff in my basket is Ben’s stuff and it’s still early enough to hang the stuff out. Most of the hangers are broken (we used hangers and hung the clothes from the frame of the pop up awning thingy) but it’s mostly nightgowns, PJ bottoms, tank tops and underwear. That stuff doesn’t need to hang nicely. As long as it dries, who cares if its wrinkled?! After starting the washer, I went to lay down in my room. Ben and Zeus were waiting for me. Swell.

Ben stayed with me for a while, then he went out to the living room. He was back and forth. I got the clothes out of the washer and hung them up to dry. Everything was chill and relaxed…

And then Ben started with the “You have to get dressed, you have to go to the store and buy a new police car.” I ignored it. He started ramping it up. He started doing all the things he does… knocking my jackets down, going after the wood at the wood at the gate… I was so over hearing that phrase! I was so over it! I told him i would go and buy a damn police car. I went to Target and of course their selection sucked. I got two different police cars and brought them home. He said thank you, played for 5 minutes and started acting out again.

I’m getting ready to put him in the bathtub, maybe the water will relax him. Here’s tonight’s song. Just a random song I like.

Thank for hanging out with us. It’s awesome to see Ben doing better! We had a pretty good day until the end, and I’m still not sure how it’s going to end up. Come on by tomorrow and we’ll talk about it.

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HUGS!!!

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