Part 202 ~ 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.

When the 5:45pm alarm went off on my phone I was surprised. I set that for bath time on days Daughter doesn’t have work. She was still getting his dinner ready and he was doing the chalk thang. She asked me to give him his meds, which I did, then I went to check out sunset. Wow! Clouds, humidity and pretty sky! I’m glad it wasn’t too cloudy to see the Sun, ya know… Scientific Data and all that. I took pictures and waited for Ben to eat before I ran his bath. (I was hoping Daughter would handle it.)

Daughter told me when Ben was done eating. She told me “no rush” about his bath, she knew I was gathering important research data. I went ahead and started his bath, then took a couple pictures. When the tub was full enough, I grabbed a brush to fix his braid. He fought me… again.

I tried to herd him to the tub then, but he didn’t want to go without delaying by running outside or playing with his chalk. I told him I had Stuff to do, that if he wanted me to help get him clean he needed to hurry up. If he wanted to goof off more, then Mom would do his bath. He said “Gramma to do it.” I told him to “Scoot”.

I scrubbed on the red marker line, but it must’ve been Sharpie or something cuz it was NOT coming off. I reminded Ben that markers are for paper, not his body. I left him to play and took more pictures. In between pictures I took his stuff to his room, cleaned up all the chalk, and covered Sven. After the Sun was out of sight and the light was fading a little, I switched my phone camera from “photo” mode to “pro” mode. I stopped taking pictures before the “show” was over. I had my Science Data, the reason for sunset pictures. Only the last picture was taken on “pro”.

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Daughter escorted Ben to bed when he was done with his bath. I said “Hey! Don’t I get a kiss?” Ben puckered up and held his face up for me to kiss him… such a goof sometimes! I was still taking pictures at the time, so I said Goodnight and went back to my Science.

Then a whole bunch of time seemed to pass without much to show for it. It was suddenly 9:15pm and I had an email I wanted to send, plus other Stuff to do… I started on the email, and I also started fighting the dozies. The Randomly Nodding Off at inconvenient times is getting old! I got the email finished and sent, then went to heat up the rest of the lasagne from the other night. I also took the kitchen and bathroom trash out to the bin, and took the recycling out to its bin.

I ate my lasagne, refilled the cat food bowl, and got Horizontal again. I did some WP stuff and took my pill around 11:45pm. I had planned to be asleep before midnight… So much for plans. I finally went to sleep around 1am. I wasn’t too concerned, Daughter was off and she could handle Ben, or we could shuffle along zombie style cuz there was no bus coming.

I heard Ben get up, and felt the ear sniffing of The Big Dumb Dog, but I also heard Daughter, so I drifted in semi-consciousness. Then around 6:30 Ben paid me a visit via Bounce, and my phone started going OFF! The med alarm, texts from Younger Daughter and a friend… I got a bunch of different sounds all competing with each other, plus bedquakes and Ben Sounds. I guess it was time for me to wake up! The texts were happy pictures that made me smile and staying in bed until 6:30am is rare for me, it’s just SO Casa Cuckoo for everything to go at one time.

I checked the sky, sunrise was Meh… I took a couple pictures and said Good Morning to the crows. The seagull circled but continued flying east. I guess it didn’t feel like hanging out this morning. Then I went to uncover Sven. Ben and Zeus were bebopping and underfoot, it felt like I was running an obstacle course just getting past them.

Sven was still asleep when I uncovered him. Daughter was doing Couch Sittin Duty so I asked her to let me know when he woke up and I’d feed him. The dried out greens and two worms from yesterday were still in his dish. But then Ben decided to start building his towers or whatever on and around Sven’s terrarium so I figured I better take care of it then. Sven had woken up and caught one of the worms. He was having trouble with the second, so I dumped the dish onto his substrate and watched him miss four times as the worm tried to get away. He finally got it. I cleaned up the old greens, or most of them and got him some fresh greens and one worm.

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Sven started doing some glass surfing after that. Maybe he doesn’t like the towers, maybe he was fighting his reflection, maybe it’s his morning workout? Cuckoo house, cuckoo inhabitants.

Thing finally started to settle down around 8am. I got my coffee and read through my In-Box, and did some other phone stuff. I was just getting ready to start on my WP Reader and comments when Daughter came in and sat on the bed. She said “So. I’ve been doing research on giant hares…” (cue ominous music)

I let her do her whole spiel and didn’t say anything. She ended by asking how mad I’d be, and how long I’d stay mad. I told her that with the Dogzilla and HRH, I didn’t think a bunny would be the best pet. She said giant hares are bigger than cats. I told her she could get whatever pet she wanted, she lived here too, but that I thought Ben or Zeus or both would harm a bunny. “Giant Hare“, she corrected and listed off Reasons… I had to laugh. I told her I thought it was hysterical that she saw doom and gloom everywhere, except when she wanted something. Then she had counter explanations for every negative. No decision was made, she will do more research.

Ben was supposed to have a Zoom at 10:30am. He’d been hanging out in my room with his tablet since around 10am. When the med alarm went off at 10:25, I hollered out to Daughter. I was wondering why I didn’t hear her setting up for the Zoom. She brought his med in and gave it to him. I asked if she was skipping Zoom. She said she was, and that she was going to go sleep. She said she’d been awake since 2am. Alrighty then.

It wasn’t even five minutes later that Ben wanted me to go to the living room. Couch Sittin Duty, after I straightened everything up. The AC was on and set at 65°F (18°C) and it was chilly. I checked the Guessers app and their spinning wheel landed on 87°F (30°C) for today. We didn’t need the house that cooled, so I set it to 70°F (21°C). The unit ran for another minute or so then kicked off. It was cool enough for 11am!

Ben played with his new dotted dominoes for a little while, then it was Arts And Crafts time. Ben drew dotted dominoes and I cut them out and curled a piece of tape to make it double sided, so he could put the paper domino on one of his blank, domino sized blocks. We did that for about forty-five minutes, then he made Zeus scoot from next to me, and took a short tablet break.

Around noon he decided to do the chalk thang. He set up near where the chaise part joins the regular part of the couch. The light from the Bath Room skylight reaches that far, especially with Sven’s lights being the only lights on.

He was still playing with his chalk when the alarm went off for his half Adderall. I gave him the med and went back to WP, email, games and occasional text messages on my phone. Zeus was yipping in his sleep under my bent knees at the end of the chaise.

Ben did the chalk thang until around 2:15pm, then got up on the couch with me for a tablet and taters break. Daughter made taters for him earlier and he’d eaten half. At 2:30pm I gave him meds cuz the alarm told me to. I’d been hoping to be relieved of Couch Sittin Duty by then, but it was not meant to be. After Doping His Face I cleaned up the dominoes and the miscellaneous chalk, swept up the chalk dust and did a general tidying up. The clutter drives me bonkers and I want to get rid of it ALL!

I was back to Couch Sittin when Daughter stumbled out at 3:20pm to take over. I got another cup of coffee and went to get Horizontal. Younger called when she got off work, a little after 3:30pm. She was on her way to the Casa to pick up mail and say hello.

Younger arrived around 4pm. Ben was excited, Zeus was annoying and Older didn’t care one way or the other cuz she’d ordered Panda Express and was tucking in. Younger hung out for about forty-five minutes then she wanted to get home, she’d come straight from work and was hungry and tired. Hugs and love were exchanged, then she went home and I went to the market, Older wanted more wine. I got Ben more poofs and diet coke too. I was gonna go to the grocery store after Ben was in bed, but I can put that off now. Procrastination…

Daughter is cooking Ben’s “white chicken” now. Bath and bedtime will follow. Daughter is off again tonight, so no driving, no stress. Rinse, repeat…

The DJ in my head played this song for me, so I’m playing it for you. Enjoy!

Another crazy, chaotic morning… seems that mornings can’t properly start without some chaos here at the Casa. Things calmed down nicely after though, so it’s all good. A whole lotta nothing again. Chillaxing is good and I will continue to enjoy it. What are we doing tomorrow? Haven’t got a clue. We’ll have fun doing it, whatever it turns out to be. ¡Hasta mañana!

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HUGS!

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