Part 127 ~ 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.

When we left off yesterday, Ben was making Happy Noises and everything was chill. I hit Publish then Ben came in my room and started screaming at me to “get dressed, go to the store for a new Big Ben toy, NOW!!” Wha…huh? What just happened? I responded with “Ouch! My ears…” so he screamed it again. I started looking up Big Ben toys online while he made sounds that resembled speech with a few English words thrown in. I showed him that I was looking, he picked one, I ordered ($10 but $20 shipping… sheesh) but he was still upset. He slammed the side door open and ran outside. I listened for gate noises and didn’t hear any, so I left him for a few minutes.

Daughter had come and given him the first trazodone early, then started cooking his chicken. I went to see if I had missed something or if he had really flipped like a switch. She was crying. I started picking up chalk, dominoes, cars… all the stuff, and asked her why she was crying. I won’t go into all of it, but basically it was “life isn’t supposed to be this hard.” I tried to talk to her but she was having a pity-party, so I let her do her thing.

I went to check on Ben and found him by the gate, nothing was moved, sitting in the shade. I told him that was great and left him alone. Good for him for removing himself to work out whatever was bugging him.

When I checked later he was sitting by the dirt hole. I told him again that was excellent and “Good Job!” and went back inside. He eventually came inside, sat in the living room and started to eat.

Bath followed and I washed his hair. It needed it! He hates having his hair messed with at all and washing it is usually an ordeal. We’ve been washing it once a week unless he’s been sweaty or gotten super dirty, but he’s been staying inside mostly, near the AC and not doing any sweaty playing.

Finally he was in bed and it was sunset time.

No clouds, no drama, but still pretty and a chance for me to move on from the weird bit of evening drama.

Younger did eventually come over to get brown sugar and a few other things. She only stayed a few minutes. I did my Night Things and took my pill a little before 10:00pm, then konked out. No chocolate drool this time.

I woke up around 3:30am because I always wake up around 3am. I sent Younger’s partner a text wishing them a Happy Birthday and including a link to the Blink 182 song “What’s My Age Again” because it’s their twenty-third birthday. Daughter was also awake. I said Hello to her as she passed on the way to the bathroom. Then I went back to sleep.

I don’t know what time Ben got up this morning. Daughter was still awake, I heard her talking to him so I drifted back off. There was a Bounce and a bedquakes followed by an airplane flying into my back, then a maniacal giggle. A second airplane hit my butt… SWELL! A new method of Waking Gramma Up. Daughter brought his morning meds in, and I started trying to get my brain to function.

On my way to the bathroom, I uncovered The Bruminator and turned his lights on, got a Glare, then continued with my neccessary. Daughter was blah blah blah-ing about not wanting to go to the thingy and maybe she could email her boss… I told her it would be better to just get it over with, it was three hours, we were awake anyway.

At 7:45 we left to Drive Miss Daisy. We dropped her off, and came home. The first thing Ben did when we got home was bang his head on the front door and throw himself down, yelling for “Help! Help” and telling me to call Rescue Service. (I really don’t like Peppa Pig!) I got him off the floor and cured him by taking his temperature. That was his idea, I just do what I’m told to do, like a good Peasant.

After HRH had his shoes removed and was settled for the moment, I cleaned up the mess Dogzilla had made while he was abandoned, all alone.

The first hour was spent doing Arts and Crafts, in between breaks for pacing and scripting. Then there was the Trouble In The Bathroom episodes, apparently caused by constipation (an ongoing issue with Ben), followed by more pacing and scripting. Ben’s energy was making me feel prickly and anxious. I tried to reverse the flow and send Zen to him instead of him affecting me.

I decided to give him the BIG box of chalk, hoping it would distract him and give him something to do. He was happy with the box, liked the wrapped sets if chalk, but didn’t want to do his regular thing with them.

He had me put tape over the back of the box so he could make the circled V from the movie V For Vendetta. But he needed “help” with that too. Counting to ten in my head, I made what he wanted. When I was done, he kissed it. I guess it was a good job.

Then with the cellophane wrapped sets of chalk, he set them up like dominoes, followed by blocks, then the actual dominoes. He was still setting it up when Daughter called for us to pick her up. She asked several times if I was okay when she called. I told her I was okay. I had been sitting with my eyes closed, trying to chill myself and send chill to Ben. Zeus was snoring next to me, so I know it was working to some extent.

Anyway, I told Ben to stop doing dominoes and come get his shoes on so we could get Mom. It took three repetitions, but he got up. Off we went.

On the drive to drop her off, Ben had been telling me to “go that way” at intersections on the way back home. All but one was opposite to the way home. So after picking Daughter up, when Ben told me to turn, I turned. Why not? Maybe it would correct whatever was causing the edginess. (aside from the obvious discomfort of constipation) We made a few turns, saw more of the huge complex of medical buildings associated with the hospital and eventually made it home.

The dominoes were knocked down, as expected… stuff was scattered, as expected… and Dogzilla was doing the whiney wiggle dance with his ball in his mouth. I went straight to my room to get him out of everyone’s way. Daughter and Ben settled in the living room.

A little while later Ben was successful in the bathroom. Daughter and I cheered like he’d won an award or something. Yes, at Casa Cuckoo we celebrate a successful B.M.

Ben came to my room a few times, but mostly stayed in the living room with Daughter. I could hear them playing and laughing. Getting to the bathroom was a challenge due to the obstacle course of stabbed boxes, chalk, dominoes and miscellaneous bits and bobs.

I spent the afternoon Horizontally, trying to catch up on my WP Reader. It was nice to relax a little. Even though the days have been going pretty well, I’ve felt drained. I never get enough sleep and it seems like I’m always so busy, but I don’t really DO anything except Couch Sittin’, a few errands and short drives. Oh and my Peasant Duty, but that still doesn’t feel like much. I’m not out digging ditches or doing customer service. Anyway, it was nice to relax.

Then, just before 5pm, the switch flipped and he started kicking the front door to jiggle the lock open. We got him away from the door after he got it open.

Then he ran outside in the back yard. We left him out there. When I looked out my window I saw that he’d moved all the stuff from the broken gate, so I went out and put it back. He came in the house and started throwing things and screaming at us to go to the store. It was a Meltdown. I wasn’t surprised. He’s been working up to it for days. Last night it was narrowly avoided, tonight he pushed until we had no choice but to push back.

I’m not going to give the whole play by play. We had to restrain him for about twenty minutes. We had to block the doors with our bodies. I don’t know if it’s over. We gave him his meds at the regular times and that helped to calm him. The night meds are for sleep.

When he ate his pizza and went to bed we were calm, he was calm, but I don’t know why he flipped last night or tonight. I just don’t know…

I chose this song earlier… before the flip and Meltdown. Gogol Bordello is a fun band. I hope you enjoy…

Thank you for coming by Casa Cuckoo today. It really lived up to its name, huh?! I hope you’ll come by tomorrow, share our good times and bad times. I’m not planning on doing the sunset tonight, so you won’t have to endure “slides from the family vacation”. Daughter isn’t working tonight, so she’ll be here all day, until we take her to work tomorrow night. We can have lots of Adventures before we do that though.

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HUGS!

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