Part 124 ~ 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.

Ben had his bath and went to bed with no problems. Then sunset

After sunset I did my Night Things and just relaxed. I made the mistake of surfing around YouTube and then it was 11:00pm. I took my pill and called it a night.

“Gramma come living room” was commanded around 6am. I was getting out of bed when Daughter told me she was awake and would handle it. I got back in bed. Daughter set up for Living Room Duty and Ben came to my room and Bounced me.

At 6:45 I got up to get coffee and use the bathroom. I also uncovered and lit up Mr Sleepy. He hadn’t moved. He opens his eyes every once in a while to glare at me throughout the day, but that’s it.

I got ready for my pump fill appointment while Ben ran around all over the place. No chill this morning, it was all chaos. I left a little after 8am for my 8:30 appointment.

I got there in less than twenty minutes. I love the open freeways. Traffic sucks and I don’t miss it at all. The doctor doesn’t open their waiting room until 8:30 since the Kootie, so another lady and I were standing around… waiting.

At 8:30 we were allowed to enter and fill out our COVID questionnaires and have our temperature taken. Then I sat and waited. And waited. And waited… You’d think a Pain Management waiting room would have comfortable chairs, but they don’t. I had to get up and pace back and forth a few times cuz my butt was going numb.

I was finally called back at 9:20. They didn’t weigh me or do my blood pressure this time. I asked why they were so late bringing me back. It seems that they can’t deal with the meds or do “procedures” until the doctor is there in the office, and the doctor didn’t arrive until a little after 9am. UGH!

The nurse who did the fill and the other nurse were people I’d only seen once before. The gal who usually brings me back and gets everything set up wasn’t there today (I hope she’s okay and it was just a day off) and the RN who did the procedure is a fairly recent hire.

Anyway, it took the RN forever to find the port in the pump, to extract what was in there and then to refill it. I told her exactly where the port was, but she kept looking, then poking in the wrong place. Finally it was done and my appointment for next month scheduled. I decided to take a 9am appointment instead of 8:30. I like to get in and out and be done, sitting around for almost an hour is something I’d rather do at home.

I left at 10am and was home by 10:20. I walked into the house and almost walked back out. (I had a weird feeling of sadness hit me like a wave earlier and I was almost in tears on the drive home. I wasn’t personally sad about anything. The feeling felt like it belonged to someone else… like a staticky radio signal…) I wasn’t ready for the Attack Of Dogzilla or Ben being upset that Dogzilla had knocked over the dominoes.

I stayed and navigated the obstacle course to get to my room. I texted Younger and explained the weird sadness, but didn’t get an answer. I figured she was sleeping. I changed into my comfy clothes and fixed the damage HRH had done to my room in my absence, then I got Horizontal.

Ben was back and forth all over the place. I guess he missed me terribly in the two hours I was gone. At one point I had to get up and go outside to “help” him get up off the ground. Of course the Big Dumb one had to bark, bark, bark while I was performing this duty.

I was finally, FINALLY starting to relax a little when Daughter called Ben to the living room. I’d heard her talking on the phone and knew it was Ben’s teachers wondering why he wasn’t at the Zoom Meeting. She got it set up and of course it was a disaster because there had been zero transition for Ben. I knew the meeting was today, but I didn’t remind her. She needs to take more responsibility for these things. I can’t do everything. Yes, she works, but that’s ALL she does. I take care of all the errands and take care of Ben the majority of the time.

Daughter went to her room to charge her laptop around 12:30. I waited for Ben to command me to join him in the living room. I waited for maybe two minutes… maybe.

Ben needed me to tape something. He was wandering around, saying “Gramma, need tape” I told him that I heard him, that I would help him, but I couldn’t tape something for him until he sat down, or slowed down and showed me what he wanted. He finally threw himself down on the couch, and handed me three pink dominoes to tape together. Then he got distracted by his tablet. Worked for me.

While he was busy with the tablet I picked up all of his chalk, and all of his dominoes and blocks. I also got all the discarded tape and swept up the chalk dust and dog hair. Ahhh… no more obstacle course. Then I resumed my Couch Sittin’.

When Ben noticed the cleaned up floor space, he decided it was time to do the Chalk Thang again. Well… it was clean for a minute or two… Sigh!

Daughter came back out to take over around 3:30. I happily went back to my room, followed by Ben and Zeus… my Boys. Ben was watching his tablet with earbuds, but he got really quiet, really still. I looked over and his eyes were closed. The little stinker was trying to take a nap. Nuh-uh! No Way! NOPE! I jiggled and tickled and told him to wake up and he ignored me. I took his tablet and put a movie on and turned the volume up. It was the “Bonjour” song from Beauty and the Beast. Messing with his tablet was sure to get his attention.

Younger called while I was trying to get Ben to come ALL the way back from sleepy dreamland, to tell me she was coming by to bring hats for Older to look through, (Older has some work thingy on Friday. It’s a meeting and a training and an outdoor festival all rolled into one.) and to ask if she could use my car to do Postmates for a few hours.

I told Ben his Auntie and Partner were coming by to say hello to him, he needed to wake up. THAT got his attention as well as the movie change. He got up and ran to the living room. I followed and unlocked the front door. I figured since the door was unlocked, I’d take the trash and recycling out to the bins and almost smacked into Younger. She was going through the mail in the box to see if any of it was for her or Partner.

She brought the mail and hats in. Older looked through and picked one. Ben ran around, Zeus ran around, I went and got the clicker thingy for the Prius to give to Younger, she gave me the keys to Partner’s car, “just in case”, then she took a couple of Ben’s sodas and they left. Whew! Whirlwind Visit!

Ben is in the living room and he’s making Happy Noises at top volume. It’s about time to start the evening countdown. Let’s leave with Ben in a good mood…

Thank you for coming by today. Thanks for enduring all the waiting around and the chaos this morning. Even when Older Daughter doesn’t have work, things aren’t calm at Casa Cuckoo. It was a weird, chaotic morning, but overall a good day. Come back tomorrow, see if we have three chaotic mornings in a row or if we have a mellow morning… whatever kind of morning, you’re welcome to join us! Coffee will be ready…

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HUGS!

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