Part 211 ~ 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 white chicken, had his bath and went to bed with minimal fuss. I helped with the bath and cleaned up the chalk and the dominoes and took all his stuff to his room, all while I was Gathering Scientific Data on the setting Sun.

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Then I did the Things and the Stuff and ate my Jersey Mike’s 6″ #13… all of it! I can usually only eat half at a time, but it was SOOO nom nom that I gobbled up both pieces.

I was doing more Stuff when Daughter came and plopped on the bed. I could tell this was gonna be Serious, so I put my phone down and asked what was up. She started off talking about how great the day had been and I knew where she was going. So I told her that Yes, the day had been Freakin Fantastic and that there was no other shoe. That’s when she started crying… She had worried herself into tears. I told her that some days are crap, just horrible all day… and some days were great, like Thursday had been. Most days were mostly Meh, with some good stuff and some crap stuff. I told her she should accept the Fan-freakin-tastic day, say thank you and that’s it. I told her she doesn’t have to “pay” for good days with crap days, they just happen. (Exceptions being forgetting responsibilities to have fun, then consequences of being irresponsible) I told her that if she spends all day Friday worrying and waiting for something bad, she’ll see every little bad thing and give them more weight than the little good things… it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I told her I’m not a “pollyanna” who only sees good in everything, but I don’t look for bad stuff. I see it, I accept it… that’s life, but I don’t worry about it either. No one likes to be blindsided, but it’s impossible to plan for every worst case scenario. I refuse to worry about “what if”, I’ll save my energy for “what IS”, trusting in my strength, and resilience. Remembering everything I’ve been through and knowing that whatever comes, I’ll handle it. I don’t know if any of it helped her at all.

She went to bed around 10:30pm. I was still doing Stuff, so I wished her a Goodnight and continued with my Stuff. I was ready to take my pill around 11:30pm, but before I could, Ben got up. He went straight to the bathroom and I followed. I wanted him to do his business and go back to bed. I covered him up, told him to go back to sleep and that I loved him. I went back to my room and messed around on my phone, hoping he’d sleep again.

I heard him making Happy Noises and he was getting louder… Dang It! I went into his room, told him it was very late and I needed to sleep. I told him that he needed to sleep some more too and asked if he wanted a snack or something. He wanted his Peppa Pig phone. I didn’t remember seeing it so I asked where it was. “Living room” is what he told me, so I went and found it. I told him again it was time for sleep and went back to my room. It was 1am but I took my pill, I knew I needed to sleep and I hoped he’d at least stay in his room if he wasn’t going to sleep more.

He stayed in his room until around 4am. I heard him get up, but he didn’t come get me. I hoped he was just going to the bathroom again. Zeus came in, did the ear sniffing and laid down with a grunt. I was semi-awake, listening for trouble but still trying to sleep. At 4:30am I heard those words… “Gramma come living room” DANG! I dragged my sleepy self to the living room for some Couch Sittin Duty.

Ben played, watched his tablet, made Happy Noises and did Ben Stuff. Around 5:30 I went out to look at the sky… saw Mars, saw Venus, but no Moon. I uncovered Sven at 6am and got him fresh greens and cut up a couple blackberries, and paparazzi’d him. He ate a piece of blackberry and some greens then went to hang out on his rock. I took a few more pictures over the next half hour, in between looking at the sunrise.

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The last picture cracks me up. The little piece of blackberry stuck to him. Poor Sven! I was back and forth between checking on Ben and looking at sunrise. Ben was getting hyped up and I wasn’t in the mood. I saw whatever show or movie scenes the face planting into things is from. It’s animated and looks like cavemen and one guy smears mud or something all over another guy’s face, then smacks his face with a piece of wood or rock, so it’s like a photo with the mud showing the image on the wood/rock. Animated shows are sometimes worse. Anyway, his meds weren’t due until 6:30am and if he wanted to smack his face into stuff, even after I asked him not to, told him I didn’t want him to get hurt, there wasn’t much I could do, so I went to watch sunrise. I’d take a few pictures then check on him. I even told him to come out to the dirt hole if he had extra energy to burn off, but he was happy doing the face planting thing.

I was happy to see a few clouds in the sky. It makes a prettier sunrise and it means the pressure dropped enough to allow them.

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The first two turned out kinda blurry cuz I was focusing on Venus, trying to make sure the phone camera knew I wanted that dot of light in the picture. Venus is also visible in the third picture… barely.

Daughter got up as I was giving Ben his meds at 6:30am. The Sun hadn’t made it’s appearance yet at that time, so I stayed outside, picked a few pecans and watched and waited. I found a treasure on a branch of my pecan tree

I grabbed it and brought it in the house before it could blow away. I took the picture and put it away, safe, until it can be delivered to it’s final destination.

After sunrise was over I edited pictures and went through email, put a load of laundry in and brought Daughter’s load in the house. I also dozed for a while against my will.

Ben came in to hang out with me around 11:15am, bringing his tablet and the Oreos. I was thinking that it would be a great time for him to have a nap. I got his water bottle for him and went to get the clothes out of the washer. Shoes and mask on, I told Daughter I was gonna go by Rite Aid to get her wine and some wipes while I was out… also Ben looked like he might relax enough to sleep. She gave him his half Adderall a little early, thinking it might help him sleep. (Yes, Ben falls asleep sometimes when he takes amphetamine)

He was OUT when I got home around 12:15pm. I folded and put away my and Ben’s clothes and laid down on the bed, listening to him snore. Poor little guy has been sneezing like crazy and his nose is running too.

Around 3:00pm Daughter texted me that she still had a bad feeling. Her worry from last night had built and built until she was on the verge of a panic attack. She did NOT want to go to work. I told her to stay home then. I certainly didn’t have an overwhelming desire to Drive Miss Daisy tonight or tomorrow morning. I tried to reassure her that I didn’t feel anything bad coming, but maybe it was something to do with the hospital. She did call out of work for tonight. She said she didn’t feel any better though. I suggested some deep breathing, a little meditation, a cool shower or burning some sage. I smelled the sage a few minutes later.

Ben continued to sleep. He missed his 2:30pm meds, which isn’t a big deal. He was still asleep at 4:00pm. He started to wake up around 4:30, probably because Dogzilla stepped on him, flopped on him, then beat him with his tail. Poor Ben. I talked to him for a minute then went to tell Daughter he was awake. But she had gone to sleep and I don’t think my words registered. So I went back to Ben, who had rolled over and gone back to sleep. Well, alrighty then! I guess I was the only one awake. Even Sven looked like he was snoozing on his hammock. A Casa Cuckoo afternoon siesta, I guess I missed the memo.

I have no idea what the rest of tonight will be. I’ll be taking pictures of the sunset for my Science Project, that’s all I know for sure. Oh, and I know Daughter and Ben better leave me alone when I’m ready to sleep. They just better.

This was playing in Rite Aid today when I went. Yes, of course I sang along.

Thanks for hanging out. A very weird day at the Casa today. But weird days are kinda normal so, I guess it was a normal day. The Quarter Lady was there today, but she was eating and she ignored me. Eating is very serious business to some people. Who knows what will happen tomorrow? I sure don’t! Maybe I’ll find another treasure. Or maybe I’ll collect a new injury, or maybe nothing exciting will happen. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow… together. ¡Hasta mañana!

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HUGS!

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