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 only drama last night was Ben flooding the bathroom floor with a tidal wave. Small drama. He went to bed with no problems.
I did my normal Night Stuff. No sunset pictures because the sun went into hiding around 3:30pm and never came back out. I guess clouds came in and mixed with the smoke. The cloud cover keeps it cooler, but it also traps the stinky. I really should stop complaining, I’m lucky I’m not in any fire danger.
I wound up konking out without taking my pill. I woke up around midnight but went right back out, then again at 4am. I heard Ben awake at 4:00 so I started the coffee dragon to burbling and hissing… I knew it wouldn’t be long before he got up.
I was surprised that he waited until 5:00 to get up. I think I surprised him by being awake already. Couch Sittin Duty started early today.
We were still under a thick cloud cover this morning, so no pretty sunrise. I turned Sven’s lights on and uncovered him around 6:15am. Of course I paparazzi’d him, I was suffering from photography withdrawl… no sunset or sunrise…
Med alarm, Zeus bringing his “tug” toy to us to play, Ben pacing and fidgeting with Ants In His Pants… a typical Casa Cuckoo morning.
Daughter got up around 7:30. I was in the middle of scrubbing the toilet at the time and she was doing the “potty dance”. The joys of living with one bathroom. At least she had a nice clean throne to sit upon. Such exciting adventures we have.
I got more coffee and went to get Horizontal. First I went outside to see if the sun had made an appearance. I wish I hadn’t
I read some news, read some email, played a game… just relaxed. Ben had a 9am Zoom session scheduled and he’d finally calmed down. He was finally able to sit still, which was promising for the scheduled Zoom.
At 9am Daughter was able to get Ben to the Zoom chair. He got up a few times, but I don’t blame him. The 9am session was Art. They glued leaves on a tree. Over Zoom. For twenty-five minutes. Oh, and talked about Autumn. Ben had two more Zooms on the schedule today…10am and 11am. I guess there IS a positive to having Dogzilla follow me all the time… I have to stay in my room to keep him out of the way during Zoom, so I don’t have to Zoom. Look hard enough, I can find a Silver Lining to just about anything.
Daughter decided to skip the other two Zooms. It was a mellow day, Ben was in a good mood, she had to go back to work tonight, and Zoom is NOT the “hill we’re willing to die on”. Especially after the struggles before, during, and after the 9am session to glue leaves on a tree. (Can you hear my eyes rolling?)
At 12:30 I was back on Couch Sittin Duty. Daughter’s laptop died, and she wanted to lay down for a while. She was also stressed and aggravated that the U.S. Mail hadn’t delivered her paycheck yet. Our mail generally comes in the morning. I told her again, as gently as I could, that she needs to call whoever and get her direct deposit sorted. Any errands I was going to run was dependent on her check. Since it hadn’t come, I hadn’t gone.
Ben was doing the Chalk Thang when I took over. After his 1pm half Adderall, he decided to take a break and do some tablet watching. We hung out on the couch together.
Daughter put a small load of laundry in the washer and hung them up around 2pm. I’m gonna have to make a trip to the laundromat but I only want to go once. It was planned as part of the errand running after Daughter’s check came. Since we got no mail this morning, the errands are put off. Maybe tomorrow, maybe Monday.
Ben was back to doing his Chalk Thang. We were all just hanging out, doing our own things. I turned the AC on at around 2pm, it was starting to get stuffy and a little warm. I checked the Guessers app… 89°F (32°C). Yeah, that’s a little warm.
At 2:30pm Daughter texted me that she was laying down, she felt nauseous and she’d set her alarm for 4:30. I texted back “okay, 4:30”. Ben took another break from Chalk to hang out on the couch with me. Such exciting adventures today. (I wonder if all the eye rolling is contributing to my headaches? I guess I could try being less sarcastic… nah, I might explode or something.)
Daughter actually got up at 4:30. I felt shocked. She said she dozed a little but didnt actually sleep. Not surprising, she slept at least eight hours last night. She’ll get be tired tomorrow morning after working a twelve hour shift. I am actually glad it’s the weekend and we dont have to worry about Zooming for two days. This is the first time in I don’t know how long that the weekend is a good thing, instead of “Boo! No school bus.” or just “Meh! Just another day.”
I guess we’re heading into the Pregame Show… that hour or so before dinner bath and Driving Miss Daisy. Younger is available to sit with Ben and I may have her come just to make things less stressful. I better decide pretty soon so I can give her a little notice.
Look at the cast of the video… recognize anyone?
Thank you for continuing to stop by every day. I really DO appreciate each and every one of you! A whole lot of nothing most of the day. Daughter’s check not coming in the mail today sorta threw the whole day off. I’m not complaining. My abdomen is still sore, more rest is a good thing. Hopefully it will come tomorrow. She’s stressed out about it, and when she’s stressed, she’s grumpy. I hope you’ll come back and hang out with us tomorrow. We’ll be waiting on the mail carrier, then who knows?! Big adventures or little adventures, we try to have fun and laugh as much as possible. ¡Hasta mañana!
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HUGS!
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King Ben's Grandma 
Dogzilla has earned his kibble today with nothing but his following skills!! 😄 Way to go Zoomzilla 😉. I recognize the woman but can’t think of her name. But that is totally JD!! 😜 Great ain’t too 🎶💃🏼🤗💖
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I dont wanna give it away, if no one else recognizes her, I’ll give you the name😉
I knew Zeus would have some redeeming quality to offset being so clingy. Of course, if he wasn’t such a Big Dumb Dogzilla he could be in the room while Ben was Zooming, but his tail is deadly and he growls and barks at everything… so fierce & protective 🙄🤦🏼♀️🤣🤣🤣
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Johnny Depp! I used to almost have panic attacks before Zoom school sessions when my guys were still with me. I just started refusing. I felt like I was naked and surrounded by people with clipboards taking notes. I already had too much to do before school stopped. I am going to cheer every time you opt out. I will not even comment on how juvenile the assignments were for my kids. I will simply roll my eyes.
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Ben’s school is really awesome. He goes to a “non-public” autism school. Its basically a private school that only takes public school kids that have needs that cant be met in their home district. His OT and Speech are on staff and integrated into his day, his class has like 6 or 8 students, with aides plus the teacher. The school keeps the kids until they are 22 years old, they teach life and job skills to the older ones… I can’t say enough about how great his school is…
They are doing Zoom because they have to do some kind of teaching to get their funding. They have been really cool about Ben skipping, and I’m sure they’d love to skip also, but it’s necessary, unfortunately. They’re hoping to reopen their campus and bring kids 2 days a week, rotate them through, at the end of September.
But, the Zoom is SOOO not working for Ben. They have problems getting him to do stuff when he’s at school, so they know. But they’ve asked us to try, so we do. Not super hard, but we try.😉
His Mama, Older Daughter feels judged. I’m past caring about what people think. But then I’m a grandmother, I did worry more when my girls were growing up.
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His school sounds amazing! Ya that’s nothing like here. My kids are in a corner with an EA in a room full of neurotypical kids. So much energy just goes into making sure they don’t disrupt the other kids. It’s tough my sister is a public school teacher and she is just so angry to have kids with autism “messing up her class”. We just don’t talk about it anymore. A good chunk of the school year didn’t happen before COVID because teachers walked out and carried out a month long strike in Jan. I’m just gonna say that I am so happy for Ben instead of focusing on how things were. He should have all that and I hope that model spreads to other regions outside of the U.S. Who knows we could be in a totally different situation in 6 months. EJ is actually starting at another school cause his previous one only went to grade 6. I received an email today of a meet the teacher video for him. The person taking it must not have realized they were not holding the camera high enough and all you can see is the belly of his middle aged male teacher, lol. He seems like a really nice man and I look forward to seeing his face in the near future. 😉
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A calm day today. Hope her check comes tomorrow. I’m glad the sore stomach is getting better. Take care. Hugs.
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Thank you! Have an Awesome Saturday! I’m still getting used to you being 12 hours ahead instead of in the same time zone.😂🤗🥰
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You’re welcome Angie! Same here. Good night my friend
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I love your silver linings! I really need to adopt the same mentality. When I DO see the silver lining, I know I feel a lot calmer. My stupid mind just gets in the way. I swear these stupid zooms are making me lose my mind (and gain a lot of weight). I hate them so much I am finding myself in the kitchen eating some “treat” for getting through another “class.” Oy. And since I haven’t really found a way to exercise or routine – it’s just not a good fit. Well, I hope the skies clear so you can take your sciency pictures! And you have a nice chill day and weekend!
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Your silver lining can be that D hates Zoom so much, he’ll be excited to go back to school when it opens.🤷🏼♀️ I know YOU will be doing a ginormous Happy Dance!💃🏼 Have you guys heard anything? I’m checking the numbers daily, hoping there isnt a spike that squashes the September 28 date. Most of the new stuff is from San Diego State University. Freshman & Sophomores being idjits! I don’t think that will affect the school’s decisions.🤞
This is the first time in forever that I’ve even known it was the weekend and looked forward to it cuz weekend=no Zoom😂😂
Enjoy your Zoom-free days!💞
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Our superintendent sent out a district wide email stating our county’s numbers are good and was hopeful we can resume some school hours sooner than expected. Which would be GREAT. What I had heard from another principal was that the reason school’s weren’t opening was because their lawyers were telling them not to. We play club sports, but we all signed a waiver releasing the clubs from liability if our kids were to get sick. If school’s open it would be mandatory for kids to attend as state law requires children to attend school each day that instruction is provided. If someone were to get sick in THAT situation, teacher or student, then the school faces a lawsuit. A lawsuit, that the principal was warned by lawyers, that no school district would survive. Me? I’ll sign a waiver for school to reopen if they would let me! This was way more than I expected!
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That’s awesome! Fingers crossed for you🤞 Our Governor okayed our county, its Ben’s school district and the teachers union that is saying no until we maintain good numbers.
Oh, I hope we both get to wave goodbye to busses. Or even drive. I’ll drive. Yes, I will!😂
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I love a silver lining. Soon the fires will be gone. Hope your happy. x
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I was Bounced at 2:30am… I was Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy and Sneezy. Then I saw the Moon, Venus & Mars in the pre-dawn sky, so I was working on adding Happy. A proper sunrise brought me to Happy… still not Bashful or Doc though 😉😂😂💌💌
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Glad you’ve been having some fairly chilled days. Enjoyed the video – I used to love Johnny Depp but he’s gone off the rails a bit these days! Think I spotted Faye Dunaway too but don’t know the young woman actress.
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Yep, that’s Faye. I dont recognize the young girl either. Johnny & Faye were who I recognized. I was surprised. Several videos have surprised me with younger versions of now famous actors.
How are you feeling? Tummy bug all gone?💞
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I’m feeling much better now, thanks. Just started some gentle yoga for my back too which I’m really hoping will solve the problem. hope you are feeling less sore now. 🙂
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Music video trivia: The “young actress” I think you’re talking about is Gabrielle Anwar (she eventually starred in the “Burn Notice” series, among other things). There are also several other cameos. Re-watch the very end, and you might just spot a “friend”…
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Wow! Good call! He was on for like 2 frames. I remember Burn Notice. We watched a couple seasons a million years ago😂
You win the Gold Star🌟
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