Part 209 ~ 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 was eating Blue Ramen when Daughter finished cooking his steak. She was thinking she shouldn’t have bothered cooking. I told her that he’s been eating a lot lately, he might eat the steak after, and he did. I took my pictures and cleaned up his dominoes area and his chalk area and gave him his bath. Both of his knees were skinned a little, and I asked him if that happened at school. He said yes, so I asked him if he ran away up the stairs, and he said he did. So I told him that’s why I always tell him that running away up the stairs isn’t safe, that I don’t want him to get hurt. He got hurt when he ran away and it makes me sad when he gets hurt. Then I left it for him to think about. I went back to taking my pictures and Daughter put Ben to bed after his bath.

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The Sun is noticeably further south every night. I hope I’m able to capture where it sets on Winter Solstice. After my Sciencey Stuff was completed for the night I did all the usual Things and Stuff.

Younger came by after she got off work to talk to me about money and buying the car she’s been driving, the car that belongs to Partner’s family. I asked all the questions and she had answers. Good for her. She gave me a number and I transferred the money to her bank account. She was almost in tears after. She’s really trying to be self sufficient, which is good, and she felt bad about asking for the money. I’m just glad that she has her own car now, that Partner can’t demand the keys, or leave Younger stranded if they’re fighting.

I dozed a little, against my wishes and ate my food around 11pm. I took my pill after that and I think I actually achieved sleep before midnight.

Ben got me up with the yelling run-by method at 5:30am today. Both the time and method were better than his last wakeup, although another hour would’ve been great. I got up, got all the Stuff, said hello to Zeus and gave him his breakfast, and went to look at the sky. Mars was setting in the west and Venus was high above the Moon in the east. There was a tiny bit of light along the horizon.

I uncovered Sven and turned his lights on, and grabbed his new, bigger food dish, and dumped the old greens. Rinsed, dried and restocked with fresh greens and one big blackberry cut into three smaller pieces… the worms are gone. He perked right up and went directly to his dish as soon as I set it down. He ate a piece of blackberry then some greens, with me paparazzi-ing him the entire time. Then he glared and stared, so I went to look at the sky. More light along the horizon, Moon and Venus still visible but Venus was fading in the light. Yes, of course I took pictures. Then went back in to see what Sven was doing. Ben and Zeus followed me outside, Ben stayed in the dirt hole, Zeus as always, was my constant companion.

Sven had tried for a second piece of blackberry and couldn’t get it. He got grumpy and went to his Judgey Corner.

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I went to check on Ben and the Sun’s progress a few times. Ben came back inside in time to take his 6:30am meds and I got my pictures of the Sun rising

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Then we both settled on the couch for a while. Daughter took over Couch Sittin Duty a little after 7am. I gave my report, then went to my room. I got Horizontal and was intending to go through my WP reader, but konked out, dozing in and out of sleep.

I got up around 9:30am to get more coffee. I could’ve dozed in and out all day, maybe I should have. Around 10am Daughter texted that she was ordering from KFC and asked if I wanted anything. Surprisingly, I did. I wanted popcorn chicken and fries, so I texted my request.

Ben came in to visit me off and on all morning and into the afternoon, but he spent most of his time in the living room with Daughter. I was happy they were hanging out together and relaxing. Ben definitely needed a “down” day and his “score” in the baño helped too, I’m sure. A short celebration followed, natch.

When the food arrived I nom nom’d the fries immediately… cold fries are gross. The chicken was good, but would be better in BBQ sauce, so I put the chicken and the BBQ (Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey Barbecue) sauce in a baggie and mixed it all up and left the baggie on top of the coffee maker. The BBQ sauce was cold, the chicken was slightly warmer than room temperature, and I wanted to wait till it was all the same temperature. Plus, if I ate the fries and the chicken it would be too much and I’d feel too full and yucky. They also sent me two biscuits, which went into another baggie. I was thinking that there’s some bacon grease in the fridge that I could use to make some gravy to pour all over those biscuits. NOM!

After the Food Fest, which Ben chose not to participate in, even though he had chicken and fries of his own, we all settled down with our devices and did our respective Things. Ben had one or more Zooms scheduled today, but Daughter must’ve decided not to even attempt them because I never heard her mention anything school, teachers, or computer related. Excellent idea IMO. As previously stated, Ben needed a “down” day. No pressure, no extra expectations… just relaxing and playing.

Ben was so chill doing his chalk thang I decided it would be okay for me to go to the grocery store at 4pm and get it overwith instead of waiting until later when he was in bed. The way he and Daughter butt heads sometimes, I don’t like leaving them alone if one or both of them is grumpy. It was chill though, and I just wanted it done. So I put on my mask and put on my shoes and off I went, list in hand. I had a list and I still forgot to get the Blue Ramen. I realized it after I’d already unloaded my cart, and there was a line behind me. Dang, dang, double dang!

Oh well, we still have some and the market sells it, so there wont be an emergency. I did remember to get him more “pink cookies” because I like a calm Ben more than an irritated Ben. Everything was fine when I got home. The Boys even only mildly mobbed me. Amazing!

I don’t know if Daughter is planning on making anything different for Ben to eat tonight. He has popcorn chicken that he’s been ignoring all day. Getting him to try new things is hit and miss. He grabbed the “pink cookies” as soon as I put the bag down. Daughter will probably run his schedule a little later tonight in hopes that he’ll sleep in a little later. She’s off work until Friday night, so it doesn’t really matter.

The DJ in my head started playing this song today. I love Jim Croce’s music, and this is one of my favorite songs of his. Great lyrics and just a pretty song.

Thank you for hanging out in our closed up house and doing a lot of nothing much. It’s going to stay HOT through Saturday according to the Guessers. At least it cools off at night (I keep telling myself…) Mellow days are better than hectic days and I may feel like I’m in a cave, but I’m thankful to have AC and the money to pay to run it. I’m thankful to have awesome Blogging Buddies and friends. I’m thankful that you awesome Dudes keep coming back to share our Casa Cuckoo Adventures every day. So I guess we’ll see ya tomorrow and figure out what kind of Adventures to have then… right, right? Right, right!

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HUGS!

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