Part 167 ~ 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 ate his steak in my room. Then Daughter gave him his bath and washed his hair. Shocking, right?! I had planned to wash his hair, but I didn’t plan on injuring myself. Plans… Murphy and Sod love when we make plans. After bath was bedtime, which Daughter also took care of.

I heard Parrots so I started taking pictures early. I deleted most of them. Those Parrots fly fast! I did save some for my Science Project though.

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After I collected my Sciencey Data, I changed and went to the grocery store. It was busy. And, and, they didn’t have some of the things on my list. One of the things, the dressing we use as a marinade for the “Fire Chicken” (because it’s barbecued over a fire) that Ben likes, appeared to be completely discontinued. Gah! I hate when that happens! I called Daughter from the store, standing in the aisle looking at like fifty different bottles of salad dressing, trying to figure out what to buy.

Anyway, I got what I could, remembering cupcakes and pink frosted cookies, but forgetting balloons and charcoal. I brought the stuff home, and carried it in the house, making several trips cuz my abdomen hurt! (Daughter wanted me to carry it from the car to the front door and she’d take it from the door to the kitchen… ten or fifteen feet from the door. She gave me a hard time for walking those extra steps. She didnt want to put on pants and walk down the driveway to the car, but I’m wrong for carrying stuff ten feet???)

I was headed over to market to get the charcoal when Younger pulled up. I waited for her, made her walk with me. I told her about my latest injury. She told me to quit hurting myself. Well, duh! She had the cashier laughing when she told them I was “a dumbass who tried to climb a tree”. I was NOT trying to climb the tree. Anyway, she picked up her mail, chatted for a few minutes, then left for her place. (I didn’t ask, I don’t know)

I took care of some correspondence and was getting ready to look for some food when I heard Ben, yelling… loudly. It wasn’t a yell for help or of fright, it was a loud noise he makes sometimes. He was still awake… at 10:15pm. Dang it!

I went and told him very nicely to be quiet, quit goofing, and go to sleep. It wasn’t play time, it was sleeping time. I refilled his water bottle and kissed him. Ten minutes later, another yell. Ugh! I went and told him again to knock it off and go to sleep. Daughter’s door was open, and her light was on, but I’m pretty sure she was konked out. I didn’t hear her laptop playing.

Ben was quiet from 11pm on. I took my pill around 11:45, thought about getting something to eat, but nothing sounded good so I skipped it. I finally fell asleep around 1am.

As usual, I woke up a bunch of times, but went back to sleep. When I woke up around 4:30am I heard Daughter awake and moving around. She came down the hall and I told her Good Morning and about how Ben was awake so late. She said she was gonna let him sleep til 7am. I dozed back off.

I woke for good around 7:30am. I laid in bed, waking slowly for once, and assessing my injury. It still hurt, but not as much as yesterday. A good sign. Dogzilla’s was in my face as soon as I started moving, so I pet him and told him he was a Good Dog and yadda yadda yadda.

I went out to get coffee and sing Happy Birthday to Ben. He told me “Well done. Gramma!” Very sweet! Usually when I sing he shushes me or tells me “Be quiet, please.” (we don’t allow “shut up”, it’s rude) Then I uncovered Sven and got him fresh food.

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I heard that squawking that I love and went outside to see where they were. They were everywhere. All around my house on all the wires. I heard closer squawking and looked in my tree. It took a while but I found them. Two Parrots in my Pecan. I took pictures, but it’s difficult to see green birds in a green tree against a white, overcast sky.

For the rest of the morning, Ben and Daughter were hanging out in the living room, Zeus and I were Horizontal in my room, everyone was relaxing. Ben came in to check on me several time, then wandered back to the living room.

I heard the squawking again and saw a few low-fliers go by the side door. I went outside to find blue skies and flying Parrots. I pointed my phone, and hoped I got some good pictures. They are such a pretty green in the sunshine!

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Ben came outside with me. He said “What is that noise?” which I know is scripting from a movie, but it was appropriate scripting. I told him it was the Parrots and wasn’t it fun for them to fly around our house on his Birthday?! He stayed outside with me, and watched them fly around. They looked like they were having fun!

At 11:30 Daughter logged in for Zoom Group, but nothing happened. She tried a couple times, but nothing. She told Ben he was free, no “computer school” today, and emailed his teacher. I love when unpleasant things cancel.

At 12:45 Daughter went to lay down for “two hours”. I grabbed my stuff and headed to the living room. Ben was doing dominoes right in front of the hall. I stepped over, but Dogzilla did some minor damage. Then I realized I hadn’t verified about Ben’s meds. I didn’t want Dogzilla to follow me past Ben’s dominoes again, so I called Daughter. Noon med moved to 1pm and 2:30 meds moved to 3pm. She assured me she would be up by 3:00. I replied with a neutral “okay”. She firmly asserted that she would be up by 3pm. Okay…

Ben finished his dominoes and took a break, sitting on the couch with me and watching his tablet. Then he decided it was chalk time. He grabbed his bucket of newer chalk and set up by the bathroom. I did WP stuff and email stuff and Stuff.

When the alarm for the after meds went off at 3:00, I got the meds and Ben’s water bottle and delivered both to HRH in the chalk area. I thought I heard Daughter’s alarm going off in her room at 2:45pm, but if it didn’t wake her, I wasn’t going to.

Daughters BFF, Ben’s godmother or nina texted me at 3:45pm asking what time she should come over. I told her that Daughter was sleeping but I was gonna wake her up, come over whenever. She texted she was on her way.

I went and woke Daughter up. She was grumpy. She asked why her BFF was coming over then. I told her for Ben’s Birthday, DUH! She said it was too early. I told her “Whatever, Dude. It’s 4pm and you said you’d be up at 3pm. I didn’t know what to tell her. What difference does it make, when she comes over?!” (They’ve been friends for almost twenty years)

Daughter got up, BFF arrived about ten minutes later. Ben chilled on the couch and opened his present… glow sticks, chalk and a Jack Skellington onesie pajamas. Nice!

I took a couple morphine and got Horizontal. My abdomen was starting to make it’s injury known. Daughter will start the grill a little later. It’s going to be a later bedtime for Ben tonight. It should be fine, he was still awake at 10pm last night, right?!

I’m going to relax and enjoy a little peace. Even Zeus is in the living room with Ben, Daughter and BFF. He doesn’t want to miss anything. Big, Goofy, Dumb Dog!

One of my favorite bands from the 80s.

Thanks for hanging out at Casa Cuckoo. Ben has had a good Birthday. Much better than last year. Daughter has work tomorrow night, then off one, then on two… it’s gonna be screwy for a few days. Should make for some interesting afternoons. Things are always changing here! We have fun, injured or not. ¡Hasta mañana!

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HUGS!

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