Part 177 ~ The Adventures of King Ben & Zeus the Big Dumb Dog

~ King Ben's Grandma

If you missed the start of this series, you can find it here. A lot of things will be the same or very similar.

I wasn’t going to call Younger, but at 5:00pm Ben started falling asleep. I woke him up and ran his bath. I texted Younger real quick to let her know we needed her, please and thank you, then I got Ben’s Jack Skellington onesie jammas from outside where they were hanging to dry. I knew those jammas would get him into the tub. He had chalk dust all over him, he needed a bath.

After his bath he was wide awake, or he was staying awake just to see Auntie. I felt bad for calling her over when it wasn’t necessary, but she told me several times it was no big deal, that she didn’t mind, that she liked seeing him. Good Auntie! Ben is lucky to have so many people love him.

I did get a few pictures before I had to take Older to work. The sun was visible in the gross sky. Gotta collect my data for my Science Project.

I couldn’t tell if the birds in the last picture were parrots, they weren’t squawking and it was too far away. The parrots have been absent since the fire started last weekend.

When I got home from Driving Miss Daisy, The Boys were tucked in. Younger hung out for a few minutes but wanted to get back home. Hugs and thanks and I locked up.

Night Stuff, ate something, wrote an email, tried to keep myself from dozing off, failed a few times, took my pill at 11:30pm and gave in.

I got Bounced at 2:30am. I was sleepy AND dopey. (also Grumpy and Sneezy, four of seven) We went to the living room. I got the stuff, texted Daughter and began Couch Sittin.

I dozed a little bit. Ben had turned on Sven’s lights and uncovered him. It was only 5:30am. I told Ben he’d done a good job, but that I usually waited until the sun was coming up. I fixed Sven’s fallen hammock and got him food. Yes, and paparazzi’d him…

Then I went and looked at the sky. It was still dark, at least an hour before the sun would be visibly up, but I was looking for the moon. I was in luck, I saw the Moon, Venus and in the west, Mars. That told me the smoke had lessened too.

Back to more Couch Sittin, sending and reading email, texting Daughter… Stuff. When the sky started getting lighter, I went to look for sunrise. It wasn’t fantastically dramatic, but it was pretty and it was visible.

Then it was time for Ben’s meds and getting ready to go get Daughter from work. We picked her up, came home and Ben immediately went to the door, banged his head and fell down. Transitional times are always unpredictable and often turn bad. Today he was ramping towards bad. I talked him down, gave him my last box of chalk and Daughter and I talked about her shift.

She was hanging out in the living room waiting for a phone call from work to see if they were going to let her come in tonight. Apparently she is overdo for a second TB test and the Charge Nurse was freaking out. The manager called her, told her to keep coming in, but get the test done ASAP. It’s a formality.

She changed out of her scrubs and took over Couch Sittin so I could stretch out for a little while before she goes to sleep. I really wanted to sleep, but figured it would make me logey and Ben was already showing signs that he was going to be unpredictable, I needed to be clear headed.

At 10:00am Daughter still hadn’t asked me to take over, and Ben had been to my room several time, scripting Angry Words. He kept telling Daughter to “go to the principal’s office”. Mostly she tries to joke with him when he’s like that, but I know it hurts her feelings. Anyway, she was dozing and I told her to go lay down in her bed and sleep. She said she was waiting for the mail, she was worried about her check. I told her I knew she was worried but there wasn’t anything she could do, and she needed sleep. She went to lay down. I was Couch Sittin again.

Ben was playing with his chalk when I took over. He continued doing that for quite a while. He took a tablet break then was running around grabbing this and that, he was making something. I have no idea what, I just taped when I was told to and ignored the mess he was making. He’d been scripting Angry Words all morning. Something made him get up at 2:30am… It’s one of the most frustrating things about his limited ability to use speech, not being able to tell us what’s bothering him, if he even knows. He may not be aware of what is bothering him. A lot of autistic people have trouble identifying their mental, emotional or physical state.

Anyway, when the alarm went off for the 1pm half Adderall, I was surprised. I hadn’t been aware of the passage of time. I switched on the AC around 11am and closed up the house, so I didn’t even see the movement of the sun. Stuck in limbo-time in the Kingdom of Ben.

When the 2:30 med alarm went off, I gave Ben his meds and checked the mail. We had mail, but Daughter’s check wasn’t part of it. Of course it wasn’t, because Murphy’s Law. She was still sleeping. I sent a text message to her phone. I figured she might as well sleep. I guess we wait and see if it comes in Monday’s mail, or she contacts whoever she needs to contact on Monday to report it lost in the mail. Meanwhile… oh, goodness…

Daughter got up around 3:30pm. I was SO ready to get Horizontal. She got the text message, she was NOT pleased. I don’t blame her. I’d be upset at not receiving my paycheck too.

September always seems to mess with us financially. Every October 1, I get a settlement check from the work comp insurance company. I pay cash for my medical appointments until that yearly money runs out and Medicare picks up after that. It was negotiated between them, I had nothing to do with it. Anyway, October 1 I get a set sum of money. It’s a good amount. It goes to refilling my pump and paying for my medications, but it’s also a buffer against unforeseen crap like a missing paycheck.

I tried to contact Younger to see if she could come tonight. She is down by the bay hanging out with friends and she didn’t drive, so I got a maybe. Basically, I’m not counting on it. So we begin Pregame… hopefully things will go as well tonight as they did last night. He was awake and doing okay when I Drove Miss Daisy… tonight he rides along.

I’ve heard this song a few times on the radio and finally looked it up. I think it’s fairly new. It’s catchy! Enjoy!

AJR – Bang!

Thanks for hanging out with us today. The started waaaaay too early for me. It was generally pretty mellow until 2:30 when it took a nosedive. Life goes on and so must we. Come on by tomorrow. Who knows what will happen… something always happens. ¡Hasta mañana!

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HUGS!

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24 thoughts on “Part 177 ~ The Adventures of King Ben & Zeus the Big Dumb Dog”

  2. You’re right. Catchy tune 🎶 Ben is lucky to have so many people love him…Sven too 🐉. I wonder where the parrots go at times like these. Hope they come back soon. Happy sleeping! 😴💫⭐️🪐🌙✨🌟🦜🤗❤️

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    1. I dont know if they move further north or west. I’ve been curious where they go also. They travel around the whole city all year, so maybe it was just time for them to go where the food is?🤷🏼‍♀️ I miss them though… I always do.🦜🦜

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  3. Jack Skellington! EJ loves the Nightmare Before Christmas. Sorry about the cheque. That would be frustrating. EJ’s angry words script comes from a kid that was on his bus once. Came out of no where. Couldn’t figure out why he was saying this stuff. Eventually tracked it down to this kid and had seating rearranged. Sounds like Ben heard someone get chewed out at school. I hope you get a good amount of sleep tonight.

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    1. Ben picks it up from movies. Even animated movies have angry people. He watches 101 Dalmatians he calls everyone an Idiot. Or he makes up words. Lately he repeats “Its a girl guy” over and over, angrier and angrier…🤷🏼‍♀️ makes no sense to me. I try to ignore it as long as I can, he needs to blow off steam, whatever. But every sound is angry, roaring or grunting or just saying words in an angry tone… it wears me down and makes me feel anxious. Especially when I’ve only had 3 hours of sleep.🙄😂

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      1. For sure. I have a thin wall in between my unit and the unit next door here in govt housing. For the past two days the couple next door have been screaming at each other. There was even a point where he was packing up his stuff to go and saying that her kids aren’t his. Hurtful stuff and I hear the kids crying. I wish I could tune out what I can’t control but I’ve always been too sensitive. I’ve worried their anger is coming out in the angst of my posts. Can’t seem to grow thicker skin. Hugs!

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    1. It was hazy all day. I didnt go back outside after picking Daughter up at 7:30am. Blowing it all out would be great! Unfortunately it would take a Santa Ana to do that. The Marine Layer keeps bringing the smoke and ash back inland.
      Hope you get some good 😴💤💤💖

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    1. It’s been better today. Like in the first Harry Potter, no post on Sunday…nothing to wait anxiously for, less stress. Not a perfect day… Ben didn’t wake up a completely different child😉😂😂😂 but a better day. Just a few bumps…you know how it is.💌💌💌

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  7. 2:30? No bueno.
    You amaze me. I would be a grumpy pants if I was woken at that time.

    It’s been weird weather with the smoke here. I wonder if it is throwing off Ben’s system. Both my husband and i have been tossing and turning too.

    Just way too many bad vibes this year.

    Don’t get me wrong. I’m thankful for my life and wouldn’t trade it.
    It’s just that we can’t even go out for walks or work in the garden.
    Ugh.

    I made two soups today. Butternut squash and cabbage one. Cleaned the fridge, planted some seeds, baked cheese zombies and made a salad for dinner.
    It was fun cooking with the vegetables that i grew.
    My husband fixed the bird bath and helped me clean the espresso machine.

    We have a critter in the wall and hear him at night. Called an exterminator who came last week, but couldn’t find where he was getting in. He was supposed to come back last Monday with a buddy. Nope.

    So i made another call today somewhere else. Hoping to get it resolved soon.
    Ken has tried putting traps everywhere and has caught a few, just not the critter in our wall.
    Here’s hoping we all sleep tonight.

    Hugs
    Teri

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    1. I’m never happy with the early wakeups, but Ben responds to grumpy with more grumpy. It’s better for me to NOT make him grumpy.

      Making soup with your own vegetables is so fun. I remember doing that when we had our big garden. And fresh salads from the ground to the plate within 30 minutes… yum!

      Critter in the wall… UGH! We had mice for a while, tried humane traps, but there were too many. We’ve seen evidence if rats lately🙄🤦🏼‍♀️. Gonna have to put poison out again. Stupid Dogzilla is useless, plus 2 cats. Really? C’mon, earn your kibble.😂

      I’ll be glad when the smoke is gone. I remember the Cedar fire of 03, it’s still the 6th largest, it was 1st at the time. It seemed like the world was on fire, but we had Santa Ana winds to blow some of the smoke away. It also fanned the fire, which was bad. At the rate California is burning, there wont be much left that hasn’t burned. What amazes me is Oregon burning. I thought they got too much rain🤷🏼‍♀️ I guess not anymore…☹

      💖💖

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  8. Pleased to hear the skies are clearing a bit for you – I’m following the fires in California and Oregon on the news and it sounds terrifying. This climate crisis is big and affecting us all – I wish our governments would be honest and start to confront the issues. I hope your daughter’s cheque arrives – it’s horrible having money worries.

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    1. The fires are worse in the Northern part of the state. The fire I wrote about it just about completely out.
      UGH! The governments🙄🤦🏼‍♀️ Trump & BoJo and their cronies are idjits. In the US they’ve tried to undo all the positive things to protect the climate. 🤐🤐 Nope! Not gonna start or I’ll write a novel.

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  9. Okay, now the Bang Bang song is stuck in my head. Of course, it didn’t help that I had a swirl margarita with dinner. Oh well, there are worse things that could happen…

    You’ve probably already shared this, but do we know HOW the parrots came to live in the city? I wouldn’t think they are native…

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