Part 125 ~ 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.

The evening routine went okay… Ben was in a good mood, he was just being… a Mr Bootyhead. No, he was just being a goofy kid, but I wanted him quit goofing off and let me help him get ready for bed. There weren’t any problems, it just took longer than usual.

Finally it was Sunset Time… and it was magnificent!

The clouds make it so much more dramatic. I probably took forty or fifty pictures. It was difficult choosing which ones to post. I kinda went overboard. Just only a lot.

I did my Night Things and waited for Younger to bring my car back. I was dozing in and out. She dropped the car off around 10pm. I took my pill shortly after she left, but no clue what time I konked out.

I know that HRH gave the yelling run-by command to relocate at 5:30am. I dragged myself out of bed and into the living room. I wasn’t awake, I was just moving on autopilot. I sat there, looking like the Village Idjit, jaw hanging, probably drooling, eyes crossed and unfocused, and waited for my brain to catch up with my body. Ben and Zeus ran around and bumped into stuff like a couple of pinballs. I drooled some more.

At 6:00 Daughter came out to the living room and still I sat there. She stood there waiting for me to get up, but my brain still hadn’t caught up. Finally a glimmer got through and I asked her if she was taking over Living Room Duty. She said “Uh, yeah! Why do you think I have all my stuff?! Go back to bed.” Bed… my body knew that word and headed directly there… brain still MIA.

Ben continued to be a pinball only now he was doing it in my room and the living room. Bedquakes and shouts of “Gramma??” were gifted to me for next fifteen or twenty minutes. At 6:30 he put a whole sentence together… “I want Gramma’s tablet, please.” I was wondering why he needed my tablet, where was his? (My brain had been on my pillow, waiting for my return… we were reunited, and yes, it felt good) Rather than ask pointless questions, I handed the tablet over. He did say Please. He took the tablet and went to the living room.

Soon he was back with a Bounce and “I need help!” What he needed “help” with was authorization to rent or buy a movie. I tried to talk him out of watching the movie but he wasn’t going to listen to anything. His mind was set on watching THAT movie and nothing else would be acceptable. It was one of the Austin Powers movies, they were available on one of the streaming apps last month and trying to explain why it wasn’t available now wasn’t going to do anything except waste time. It was $3.99 to rent and $14.99 to buy. I rented it.

(All of our devices have parental controls turned ON for purchases. We learned the hard way when Ben spent nearly $50.00 on each of four devices. $200.00 worth of scanning through parts of movies, buying movies we didn’t need to own… It’s ALL password protected now)

I hid the screen as I entered my password because Ben is a sly one. He remembers and knows SOOO much more than he lets on. He would totally remember the password. Anyway, I rented the movie, he said “Thank you, Gramma.” and went away. For about ten minutes…sigh!

“Gramma! I need tape!” after the Bounce but during the bedquake. I told him the tape was in the living room. “I need tape.” I told him again where to find the tape he so desperately needed. “I need tape!” He really does want my head to explode. I said “Ben, the tape is in the living room. I can’t help you tape anything until you bring the tape to me. I don’t have any tape in here.” He jumped up and ran out of my room. Then he ran back in holding the tape like the Olympic Torch and said “Ta Da!” Casa Cuckoo indeed.

I taped the things, he said “Thank you, Gramma.” and ran out to the living room again. He was back a couple minutes later with “I need tape” another demand for services. I taped some more and he left again. I checked the time… it was 7:05am.

Since it was pointless to try to sleep, I got up to use the bathroom and get coffee. I uncovered Sven and turned his lights on. He cracked an eye and gave me a partial glare then closed the eye. I felt vast amounts of envy. Back to my room.

I was going through my email, looking at a few news articles and thinking about all the stuff I needed to do. Daughter had put a load of clothes in the washer, that meant laundromat and the Quarter Lady, ugh! I also needed to get some stuff from the grocery store, double ugh! Then, I realized Ben wasn’t in my room, and he hadn’t been in the living room. Where was Ben and why was it so quiet?!

I jumped up and looked outside. He was happily playing in his dirt hole. That was the best thing that happened all morning. I pulled my head back real quick so he didn’t see me. I had a thought that if he was happy in the dirt hole, I could sneak off to the store and get it over with. I changed clothes, grabbed the list and headed off.

The store wasn’t busy, which was nice, but there were baskets and dollies of stuff to be stocked on the shelves blocking a lot of aisles, which was a pain in the butt. I actually had to move stuff so I could get to the bar soap. (complaints of privilege, eh?)

I was able to get all the stuff on my list and was checking out when Daughter sent me a text with a picture of Ben. He was wearing ALL THE CLOTHES. She wrote that he was in a good mood still and demanded that she take a picture to “show Gramma”. Cute. But also not so cute because I had sorta hidden the vest, jacket, tie, button down in my room. Not hidden like The Stash, but not exactly in plain sight either. That meant he’d been messing around in my room again (I’m picturing that scene from The Labyrinth, “Someones been in my room again”, as I type this). I texted back that I was on my way home.

Chaos as I entered because both Ben and Zeus needed to inspect all three bags looking for who knows what. I told them both “Sorry, just food.” I put the stuff away and went to change back into my comfys.

I did have a very exciting moment when I heard the parrots outside. I’ve written about the parrots before… I love them. I ran out and blindly aimed my phone camera in their direction as they flew overhead.

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Daughter actually hung up the laundry.

That was at 11:00, and that meant that I was done with everything except Peasant Duty until it was time for the Countdown to Drive Miss Daisy. I did a small Happy Dance while laying in my bed.

Just before 1:00 Daughter went to her room to charge her stuff and to lay down. Ben had been laying on the bed with me for a while anyway, so we continued on with our individual entertainments.

Around 1:30 HRH decreed that we should relocate. I was surprised it took as long as it did. After getting a refill on my coffee, making a new pot because my refill was the last cup, then refilling the water bowl shared by the four-legged family members (except Sven, he doesn’t “drink” water) and refilling Ben’s water bottle, and moving the chalk into a pile and sweeping up the dust… after all those things, I went to the bathroom THEN I sat on the couch, next to Ben. (not to be confused with “the couch next to Ben”)

He sat and surfed and munched poofs for a while, then he did chalk for a while, then he came back to the couch again. Very much chill… very nice!

Daughter stumbled out to take over Couch Sittin’ Duty a little after 4:00. Ben had been sitting next to me, surfin on his tablet. He had me write “The End” and “A Walt Disney Production” for him. I wrote them like ten times each, so he wouldn’t interrupt me every two minutes. He did the embellishments on a couple then got bored with it, or whatever and went back to his tablet. I was really surprised that he didn’t immediately follow me to my room when Daughter took over.

I’m going to end a little earlier than usual. Nothing left but the countdown to Driving Miss Daisy, and Younger was planning on being here for that. I don’t know if she’s still coming or not, and it doesn’t really matter. Ben has been relaxed after the morning craziness and I don’t anticipate any trouble with the rest of the evening. If trouble comes, we’ll figure it out.

This song just started playing in my head. I haven’t heard it in a while, and when a song randomly plays in my head, I gotta share it.

A third crazy morning followed by a relaxed afternoon… what is happening at the Casa? Will the new trend continue? Will we sleep tonight? Will Sven ever wake up? I don’t know, but come on back tomorrow and maybe we’ll find out together. Or maybe we’ll have more questions… either way, we’ll have some laughs, and Adventures.

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HUGS!

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