Part 156 ~ 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.

Everything was running late with the schedule last night. First med was late because dinner was going to be late. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it kinda was… to me.

Ben was in my room and it was crazy humid and no breeze and it was just yucky. Daughter gave Ben first med at 6pm, then went to make his chicken breast. Ben decided he needed me to Write The Words. Ugh! Okay, whatever… keep him happy until his food is ready. So I wrote words until 6:30 when Daughter brought the rest of his meds and his chicken.

I tried to get Ben to focus on eating but he was looking for a different movie, more words. Meanwhile I’m going to the side door to get my Sciencey pictures of where the Sun is setting, with Zeus following and slipping past me to go outside, so I have to wait for him to come back in after I take a picture or three, so I can close the door cuz AC, and yucky humidity.

Ben was eating so slowly and I kept trying to hurry him up, in between taking pictures, because we were running SO late, and I was bummed that I was missing the pretty sunset and my ME time, plus I still needed to give him his bath. I was voicing my displeasure by “Huffing and Puffing”.(Huffing and Puffing is me blowing off steam… irritated, but not really angry. Ben can tell the difference and ignores the H and P)

Daughter got tired of my H and P and decided to run Ben’s bath, even though he’d eaten less than half of his food. I was still trying to get him to pay more attention to eating than his tablet, and still taking occasional pictures.

She came to get him to get in the bath and started taking his hair down. She was going to do his bath AND wash his hair. He wasn’t liking that idea and ran away outside. I was gonna stay out of it, Daughter was already irritated with me. Ben had closed the side door behind him, and when no came to get him, he knocked. Daughter ignored the knocking, so I let him in. This was gonna go downhill if it kept up.

He went to the bathroom and Daughter followed. I was going into the kitchen to put his chicken in there and he ran out again and grabbed my hand to pull me into the bathroom. Fine, sure… I’ll do the bath, I usually do it anyway. I’ll even wash his hair since that’s what Daughter told him. He insisted the bathroom door be closed so it was a sauna in there. I got him cleaned up, hair washed, brushed and rebraided, then left him to play. Daughter was picking up chalk and dominoes. She was also wearing her “Upset” face and Broadcasting feelings to go with the face. Swell!

Ben got out of the tub and was trying to put his bathrobe on. Good for him for remembering! I went to help him and grabbed his stuff to put it in his room. Daughter got him into his jammies and that was that.

She went back to picking up chalk and dominoes. (All of this happened between 6:30 and 7:00) Younger called a little after 7pm to let me know she was here. She came over to bring greens for Sven because we don’t have any and he moved earlier. Really moved, turned around.

I was just going to get whatever they had at the corner market, but Younger was going to be out anyway so she brought greens. Sven had gone back to sleep by the time she came over, but we had food for him now if he decided to quit brumating.

Younger followed me, telling me about her interview and how well it went, as I went out to take more pictures, then we went out front again, she was going to leave, but decided to come back in for a few minutes. While we had been out front, Older had gone to her room. I told her I was sorry for upsetting her. Younger and I were in my room and I was telling her about the magazine I’d grabbed from the mailbox when she got here, and the story that went with the irony if it arriving today, when Older came to my door and said she wasn’t mad, she was just trying to do his bath so I’d quit with the H and P. I exclaimed out loud over something in my email regarding the magazine (my brain was running in overdrive… remember, all this happened in a now forty-five minute time frame), I immediately apologized for interrupting her, but she left and went back to her room. I apologized again.

Younger left a couple minutes after that and I went down to Older’s room to see if she wanted anything from the market. I was getting Oreos, poofs and a coke for Ben. After the wackiness of the weather and the last hour of insanity, I was afraid of Mr Murphy seizing the opportunity and causing Ben to wake up super early, demanding one or all of those snacks that we were out of.

She didn’t want anything from market, but she did ask me not to talk about “house stuff” in front of Younger. HUH, WHA? She said Younger doesn’t live here anymore and she doesn’t want me to talk about stuff in front of her… like everything being behind tonight, or me apologizing for upsetting her. It made absolutely no sense to me, it’s her sister fer cryin out loud, but I agreed to her request. Then I apologized again, extremely confused, and went to market.

Ah, yes… the sunset… Sciencey Stuff and pretties and an hour of insanity for me.

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Then I did my regular night stuff. When I noticed that it was 1:15am, I took my pill. Morning would be Bouncing me soon and I needed to get some sleep.

Ben and Zeus came and got me at 6:15am. So I got like four, maybe four and a half hours of sleep. I knew it would be like that. What I didn’t know was, the second words out of Ben mouth after “Gramma come living room” were “Write The Words”. Sigh…

It was my fault. I told him last night we would write the names from the second movie when he woke up. Thankfully I didn’t promise more last night, because he remembers. I’ve tried to explain that to Daughter, but she doesn’t listen. So, before I even had my first cup of coffee, I was writing words. (We were back in my room, Daughter got up when she heard us moving around and we’d never settled in the living room)

After writing the names of the cast for whatever movie it was, he agreed that we were all done and released me from duty… temporarily, of course. I took the basket full of my and his dirty clothes around to the washer. I even managed to navigate the fence thingy without falling down and splitting my newly healed shin open. YAY ME!

When I uncovered Sven this morning, I saw that he was awake, so I put some greens out for him

I took the one picture and left him alone. You know how he hates to be paparazzi’d. I went back to my room and caught up on my WP Reader and played some games… stuff, you know…

Around 10:00am I went to ask Daughter what time she wanted me to take over Couch Sittin Duty. She stayed awake all night, bingeing on some show. She’s gonna need to sleep before she goes to work tonight. I’d told her when my clothes were done in the washer, but it wasn’t until I went out to the living room that she thought to get up and put hers in.

While I was out there I looked at Sven. He’d eaten his nom noms! And moved to the Judgey Corner.

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I told him that I’d put him in the shower when the washer was done. We don’t want the water temperature changing while he’s enjoying his Shower Bliss.

Speaking of…

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While Sven was in the shower I took the clothes to the laundromat. The Quarter Lady was there, but either she was in a good mood or she finally realized the error of her position. When I told her all I had was a ten, but only want five in quarters, she very happily assisted me. I’m glad she didn’t give me a hard time, but that means I have to go back to autocorrect being my main nemesis. I’ve been fighting that beast for years! I tried to call Daughter to see if she wanted me to get a Happy Meal for Ben before coming home, she didn’t answer, so I went home.

Ben grabbed me as soon as I walked in, wanting to know where his white shirts, blue vest and blue tie were. He was Fully Dressed… of course he was! I got the shirt, vest and a tie. The blue tie has been MIA for a while. I told him if he was gonna wear all those clothes, he needed to stay in the living room. It was TOO hot in my room. Of course he needed help. Yeah right, he can put the stuff on just fine when he’s decided he wants to.

I got Sven out of the shower and put him back in his terrarium. Hopefully he’s done brumating and will be rejoining the family frolics by judging us from his Judgey Corner.

I hollered out the noon alarm and then I put my shoes and mask on to go get the clothes from the dryers. The Quarter Lady waved at me as I left. I know my glasses need to be replaced, but it was definitely the Quarter Lady. I was within three feet of her when I got the quarters earlier. She kinda freaked me out by being so nice.

Anyway, I brought the clothes home, sent Daughter off to sleep, folded and put away my stuff and Ben’s stuff and began my Couch Sittin. It sure felt a lot later than 12:30pm.

Ben dumped his chalk… ALL of his chalk, it fills a box now, and got ready to do his thang. I started picking up the dominoes. He had the hiccups and I’ve written before about how irritating I find hiccups. He started telling me to get dressed and go to the store for new chalk… while hiccuping. It would’ve been funny if it wasn’t so irritating and a little anxiety inducing with that phrase. I just ignored it, hoping he’d stop. And would you believe he did?! Both the phrase and the hiccups. WHOA!

After the 2:30 med alarm and delivery of the meds, he was still doing chalk and singing and grunting and just being Ben. Around 3:00 he said “Take a picture. I did it!” I asked what he’d done. He said “It’s Shrek 2” pointing at his latest creation

I asked if it was the credits of Shrek 2 and he said Yes. So a mystery has been solved. This creation at least is the credits of Shrek 2 and he did it from memory. I’ve always suspected his memory was either photographic or very, very good. I guess I was right.

Daughter got up at 4:45 and took over Couch Sittin. Ben and Zeus came and got Horizontal with me. I texted Younger to see if she was still gonna be here tonight, we’d talked about it during the Hour Of Crazy. She said she would be.

And so we’re entering the Pregame Show. Knowing that Younger will be here takes a lot of the stress out of getting Ben ready for bed or ready to ride along when I Drive Miss Daisy. With him being Fully Dressed, I always worry. Sometimes it’s just dress-up, but generally it’s a sign of trouble. We got lucky today. Hopefully the luck holds until he’s asleep… or even longer.

Another random song I heard on the radio. I love this song.

What a crazy night last night, and what a strange day today. Discoveries, awakenings, victories and Laundry. It’s been a full day and we’re not even done just yet, We still have to Drive Miss Daisy. Come on by tomorrow and we’ll pick up where we left off. Life is never boring at Casa Cuckoo and we enjoy sharing our Adventures with our friends. Hasta mañana.

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HUGS!

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