Part 207 ~ 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 chicken nuggets and everything was going okay, and then it wasn’t. It wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t a lot of fun either. Ben was overtired, Daughter wasn’t feeling well and they were irritating each other. I tried to keep the vibe calm, while still taking my pictures and getting Ben ready to take Daughter to work, but I had very little success. I heard the Parrots and ran to take pictures, but I must’ve accidentally switched it to “pro”, the pictures didn’t come out as well. Too bad too, because there were a lot of them, flying directly over the house, into the sunset. Mr Murphy was having a laugh at my enjoyment of recent calm.

We wound up leaving early, earlier than the early we’ve been doing. Ben was using a LOT of Angry Words and scripting and acting out a LOT of Angry Scenes. We got him into the car and dropped Daughter off at work.

After we got home, I got him into bed, but he didn’t go right to sleep. I took the bins down to the curb, and put the folding chair in the back of the car. I also took a couple more pictures.

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I was writing an email when Ben got up at 8:40pm to use the bathroom and look for his Peppa phone. I’d put it on his bedside table but it had fallen. I gave it to him and covered him up again… told him Goodnight and to go to sleep.

I did some Stuff and the Things. I ate some food and at 11:00pm I heard Ben laughing. NO! Surely I heard someone outside, or it was an auditory hallucination or he was laughing in his sleep… I very quietly went to open his door and peek. He was awake, sitting up in bed… goofing off. I gave him a benadryl, an ibuprofen and half a trazodone and crossed my fingers.

At 12:30am he was still awake. I went in and told him he needed to go to sleep. I started to doze around 1am. I jerked myself out of the doze and listened… I didnt hear anything and I was slipping back into the warm embrace of slumber when I heard his door open and saw him walk past. Zeus got on my bed and laid down. Dang it!

Ben was in the bathroom goofing around. I made him go pee, then hustled him back to bed. I told him again that he needed to sleep, that Gramma needed to sleep… I told him that I loved him and closed the door. The last time I remember was 1:28am…

I woke up around 4:30am. Mother Nature’s Call was too strong for me to ignore, so I was UP. I went to look at the sky, it was so clear and lots of stars were visible. I also saw Venus and the Moon in the east, and Mars in the west. I took a few pictures, and went to get coffee.

I let Dogzilla out of Ben’s room at 6am. Ben was still fast asleep, Bless his little heart! I finally managed to get him into the living room at 6:30am, and after his baño stop, gave him his meds. I let him lay on the couch under a blanket while I got Sven uncovered and cleaned up his old scattered greens, and got him fresh greens and one worm. He doesn’t need protein every day. I’ve only been giving him so much because he recently came out of brumation. Of course I had to paparazzi him. He missed the worm the first time, got greens. But he got it the next try. It was a smaller one and soon gone. He was grumpy, black bearded at his reflection again. So silly!

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Then it was time to get Ben dressed. I had his clothes and his Stuff in the living room or in his backpack already. HRH allowed me to dress him as he lounged on the couch under the blanket. Bottom half first, then cover the bottom back up, and dress the top half. I was happy he was cooperating. When he was still awake at 1am, I was worried about how the morning would go. After he was dressed he wanted Blue Ramen. Fine by me. He could’ve eaten whatever he wanted this morning, as long as we kept to the time schedule.

At 6:55am the alarm to go get Daughter went off. I gathered Ben up, gathered his stuff and my stuff, put his mask on, and pulled it under his chin for the drive, and we headed to the car.

We got to the hospital at 7:10 exactly. Daughter came out a couple minutes later, and we headed home to meet the bus. Ben was still eating and in a decent mood. The bus came and Ben got on and we waved and blew kisses and the bus pulled away. I was singing “Happy Days Are Here Again” as I did a little Dancing Walk thing that probably looked like I had medical issues.

I greeted Dogzilla when we got inside. He was overcome with excitement and was doing a full wiggle-whine! We had been gone an entire forty minutes… maybe even forty-five. An eternity! He actually behaved while we were gone too. After telling him he was a Good Dog, I got the cardboard set up over the AC unit, and turned it on, set at 70°F. It was still cool, but the Guessers’ dart landed on 96°F (36°C) for today. They went all in and Guessed we’d be between 91°-98°F (32°-37°C) until Sunday when it’s supposed to drop down to the high 80s F (low 30s C). No more clouds for a while. Clear skies, hot days and cool nights… that’s normal autumn weather. High 90s is a bit warmer than normal but not ridiculously. Lots of layers in autumn, lots of laundry!

After getting the AC set up, I walked over to the market to get diet coke, poofs and more Blue Ramen for HRH. I didn’t want to go anywhere later. I also moved the car from the parking lot to the driveway. Then it was time to relax and get Horizontal!

I worked my way through my WP reader and my comments. I dozed in and out… just relaxed and took it easy. I got up around noon to get coffee and let Zeus outside. It was gross hot! I stood in the shade and harvested a few pecans that were right next to me, but went back inside when Zeus lowered his lifted leg… too hot!

The notification for Ben scanning onto the bus came at 1:27pm. School is supposed to be until 1:30pm… what’s up with sending him home early? Daughter and I waited by the cracked open front door, watching for the bus to pass, when Daughter got a call from Ben’s teacher. She said around 9:30am he started getting upset and never really regained control of himself. 9:30am is about right. He metabolizes meds very quickly, his morning meds are at 6:30am, so three hours is about standard for him. Unfortunately his next dose doesn’t come until 10:30am. Anyway, the bus went by around 1:50pm and we walked around to meet it, then walk Ben back around to the house.

We got him out of his school clothes and Daughter gave him the shorts and t-shirt pajama set she’d ordered. He put them on and started playing with dominoes. He brought the rest of the multicolored dotted ones home from school… little stinker. I went back to my room for more laying about.

I dozed a little between 2:30 and 3:30. I know the times because 2:30 meds were heard given to Ben by Daughter, and 3:30pm because that’s when Ben told me he needed tape. HRH doesn’t wait when he needs tape! As a good peasant, my job is to provide the required tape, post haste! And I do, cuz I am a good peasant.

Taping completed, I was permitted to resume my Horizontal position. HRH is kind and benevolent. He even joined me a little after 4pm. Daughter was cooking his “white chicken” and she told him to stay awake for dinner. To help keep him awake, and because it needed to be done, I brushed and rebraided his hair. His neck hairs are baby-fine and wavy-curly like the rest of his hair, and they tangle up around the top hair tie. It was really tangled in there, poor punkin. He didn’t fuss too much though. His chicken was done when I finished, so he grabbed the bowl and started eating.

The only thing left is a bath, then bedtime for The Boys. Daughter is off work until Friday night. A relaxed evening with no stress and no Driving Miss Daisy is exactly what we need.

I heard this on the radio this morning when I went to get Daughter, and the chorus is on repeat in my head…

What a crazy night Sunday night was! And Monday morning was busy, busy until the arrival of the Glorious Little Yellow School Bus! Next Monday is going to be even busier cuz I have my monthly pump fill that morning… but that’s a week away. Tomorrow the GLYS Bus returns without the preceding chaos. That will be nice. Maybe I’ll spend more time vertical tomorrow… anything is possible at Casa Cuckoo. Come hang out with us. ¡Hasta mañana!

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HUGS!

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