Part 198 ~ 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.

I ran Ben’s bath at 5:30pm. Daughter gave him all of his meds around the same time. He was doing the chalk thang but hadn’t gotten totally into it. It was difficult to get him to the bath, but not too difficult. After he was clean I left him to play, and I started doing my Sciencey Stuff. I knew I was probably going to miss part of the sunset, but wasn’t sure which part. It depended on when we left to Drive Miss Daisy.

A little after 6pm I checked on Ben. He had drenched the bathroom floor and drained the water but was still sliding around in the tub with bubbles. Jiminey Cricket On A Motorscooter! I got him out of the tub, into his bathrobe, and told him to sit on the couch. I brought his pizza to him and told him to eat. He may have taken one bite.

I went back to taking pictures after cleaning up the bathroom. Ben decided he needed to build. Daughter was in her room, getting ready for work. I realized Ben wasn’t eating, so I got him dressed in his Jack Skellington onesie pajamas, (Yes, it’s been hot, but we have the AC on in his room and I’ve been turning it on early in the living room.) socks and shoes. He went back to building, and I took a few more pictures.

Daughter came out of her room around 6:15pm and packed her backpack. To discourage the building, I covered Sven and turned his lights off. It was time anyway. Ben had been building his towers or whatever on and around Sven’s terrarium, covering the terrarium didn’t deter Ben in the slightest. Daughter decided we should just go. So at 6:25pm I took a couple more pictures and we headed out to the car.

We had an escort for part of the drive… the flock of Parrots was heading west and they kept pace with the car as I Drove Miss Daisy. I wish I hadn’t been the driver or that Daughter would’ve consented to taking pictures. Not only were the Parrots escorting us, but the colors of the sunset were unbelievable. Oh well, I have the memory and the story, and it was an unexpected joy, full of beauty.

We dropped Daughter off with our love and headed home. I got Ben and Dogzilla tucked in, and wished a good sleep. Then I took a few more pictures, for the pretty, but it was mostly over. I texted with a friend who is having a tough time right now and waited for moonrise. I was hoping to catch it when it first came up, like last night, and I did! I also got Mars above the Moon. I’m like a super Sciencey person now.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

After moonrise, I nuked an Amy’s bowl and set it aside to cool, did the Night Stuff, then did some WP and email things. When I did all the stuff that needed doing, I ate my food, texted with Daughter, then took my pill around 12:15am. I konked pretty soon after.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! Ben was kicking the front door at 5:15am. Why?? Cuz his name is Ben. Not my favorite choice from his repertoire of wakeups. I got up, got him settled, got the stuff, and texted Daughter to let her know we were up.

Since it was so early I thought I’d look for Venus, and there it was shining bright in the east (luckily it stayed visible after the sun started coming up). The Moon and Mars were still visible in the west. Pretty, but I’d have missed seeing them to sleep another hour… just sayin’.

• 

• 

Ben started building and wanting to set up his towers on and around Sven’s terrarium. I uncovered Sven but didn’t want to turn the light on right away. I was able to keep Ben busy until around 6am, then it was lights on for Sven, who was sleeping still.

He woke up and I got his food. He cracked me up with his aim and that tongue. He got mad at me paparazzi-ing him, so I went to look at sunrise. I came back and found a worm trying to escape. It took Sven about five tries to finally catch it. I told him he’d starve in the wild. He wasn’t convinced.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I watched sunrise in between paparazzi-ing Sven, taping things for Ben, giving him his meds when the alarm went off, and other miscellaneous getting ready to go get Daughter things.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

At 7:10 the alarm to leave went off and we headed out to get Daughter from work. We got there, waited a couple minutes for her to come, then took her home, where we fought our way past the wiggle-whining Dogzilla. Daughter went to her room, Ben played with dominoes and I started another tour of Couch Sittin Duty.

Ben pretty much just hung out on the couch with me, surfin his tablet. I Doped His Face at 10:30am and 1pm when the alarms told me to. I fetched snacks and refilled his water bottle. After the early morning rush around, the middle part of the day was groovy.

Daughter got up a little after 2pm. I gave my report and Ceremonies… I can say no more. (Say no more.) I went and changed into public clothing cuz I needed to go to the pharmacy. Ben and I had prescriptions waiting and I had three in my wallet that needed to be filled. I had just started the car when Daughter called me to ask me to get steak. UGH! I hadn’t planned on shopping too. Oh well… I told her to call me if there was anything else, that it would probably be at least a half hour for them to fill the prescriptions.

The store was busy and the pharmacist was by herself. I dropped the three, and she looked them up. One of mine, they didn’t have enough, which was fine… I have plenty of morphine. She got to work and I went shopping. I even remembered all the stuff from the short list. The only thing I didnt get was poofs. Hopefully we won’t have a poof emergency.

The pharmacy experienced a rush during the time I was shopping so the two prescriptions weren’t filled after thirty minutes. I stood and looked at cake while she helped the people in line and gave a flu shot to a woman who’d been in the waiting room. I was very tempted by the eclairs but I’d already paid for my groceries and didn’t want to stand in line again.

Finally done. I got the Bag O’ Drugs and drove home. Ben and Zeus mobbed me as I walked in the door, both trying to look in the bags. (The exact reason I planned on going Monday or Tuesday while Ben was in school, but Daughter wanted me to go today… worried about having all Ben’s meds) I told them both to back off so I could put the stuff down. I got the few things put away and went to get Horizontal… it was 3:30 pm.

Ben was in my room with a package of the pink frosted sugar cookies he likes to eat the frosting off of. I made him go in the living room. He was still in the Jack Skellington onesie pajamas and no AC in my room… his face was getting red. I told him he could take the pajamas off, or go to the living room or his room.

Around 4pm he started running up and down the hall, then banging off the walls of the hall, A-HA style. I’m sure he was tired, and it was getting to be that crazy time of day. Plus Daughter said they’d had an issue while I was gone.

I’m going to give him his bath early tonight so I can wash his hair. That should be quite the adventure. Hopefully the water will relax him a little bit too. Then he can eat and we can Drive Miss Daisy. Fun!

Random song played by the mental DJ. I do like Incubus…

Thanks for sharing our adventures today. It was Hot outside again, but mostly chill inside. A few chaotic moments and some laughs. That’s Casa Cuckoo! Come by tomorrow and we’ll see what we can come up with. ¡Hasta mañana!

.

.

HUGS!

.

.