Part 221 ~ 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.

Around 5:15pm I went outside to check out the sky for sunset. I usually start taking some pictures around that time. I knew it was cloudy but I was hoping the clouds would break up, or that the Sun would show through them. At 5:15pm, it didn’t look very promising. There were some breaks to the south and the east, even some to the northwest, but I needed southwest.

When I came back in about five or ten minutes later, Ben had dozed off on my bed. Oh no… Aych-E-double hockey sticks, NO!! I woke him up, told him he needed to eat still, and take his bath. I went and turned the water on in the tub and got him into the bathroom and out of his clothes. I got him into the water and all cleaned. He didnt want to play, he was ready to get out, so I helped him with his bathrobe and sat him on the couch. I gave him his night meds then I got his steak for him. Daughter cooked some steak AND some fried taters for Ben’s dinner, he’d asked for both. Lucky Ben!

After he finished his steak he was ready to go to bedtime. Daughter took him, his taters and the Zeus Dog and got them tucked in. The taters were tucked in to a “to go” container, on Ben’s table.

I did the Things and the Stuff and nuked some frozen bowl thingy. Daughter texted me that she’d ordered Greek food. When it came I took the tomatoes and onions off my gyro and wrapped it back up. I figured that way the pita wouldn’t get soggy and I could save it to nom today. Thankfully the tzatziki comes separately. I ate the frozen thing, it was Meh, I won’t buy it again, then FOOD COMA!

I woke up several times, but it was briefly. Then around 2:30am, I really woke up and realized I hadn’t taken my pill, but it was too late. Dang! The rest of the night/morning would be more dozing… no deep sleep for Angie.

I got out of bed at 6am and went to engage the coffee dragon, use the baño, then uncover the Grumpy Dragon. Sven must’ve felt the chill in the air this morning cuz he stayed in his “house” for a while. There’s a heat pad under that tile, very low heat so he doesn’t burn himself. I grabbed his dish, new greens, berries and a couple worms to go with the survivor.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

He wasn’t very entertaining this morning… or I missed the good moments when I was outside. After I’d uncovered and gotten his food, I let Zeus out of Ben’s room and put kibble down for him. Daughter got up then too. Ben was still passed out, cuz it was a GLYSB day, of course he slept later.

Anyway, I went to look at the sky, expecting clouds, but was happily surprised with Venus shinning in a clear sky with color on the horizon. YAY! A sunrise!!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

In between taking pictures of the sunrise I took more of Sven, who didn’t seem to move, and helped Daughter get Ben up and ready for school. At 7:20am I got a picture of the sun coming over the horizon, then helped get Ben out the door to walk around to the parking lot to meet the GLYSB.

While we were waiting, I took a couple more pictures and talked to the birds, mostly crows, that flew by. I was very excited and Very happy to see my solo seagull too. I said “Good Morning” and thanked it for coming to visit. It circled around once so I was able to get a couple pictures and I thanked it again. Daughter was rolling her eyes so hard I thought she was gonna hurt herself.

The GLYSB arrived right in time at 7:30am and Ben had his temperature taken and was scanned on. Off he went to school. Hurray! Happy Dance time!!

I Danced back to the house and got Horizontal. I went through my email, sent a couple text messages and started on my WP Reader. I was making progress… Yes! Stuff gets done when I’m not constantly nodding off. Around 10am I put a small load of clothes in the washer, including the most important item, Ben’s Batman costume. Daughter got an email from Ben’s teacher letting us know they were gonna let the kids wear their costumes on Tuesday. I’m almost positive Ben will choose Batman over Mr Incredible. Mr Incredible hasn’t been worn since it was last washed, so we’re good either way. Around 11:30am I hung the laundry up to dry. I have to sew a hole in the “shorts” part of the costume, (it’s a classic Adam West style grey and blue Batman, with the blue overshorts) the seam at the back tore a bit. There’s a joke there, but I’m not gonna use it. I’ll sew it up later.

Then I did some other house Stuff and just relaxed and enjoyed the peace. Everything was calm and relaxed until 1:27pm PDT… then my peace was shattered and my minutes of quiet were numbered. Ben had been scanned onto the bus… THREE minutes early, again! Sigh!

Daughter and I waited by the open front door, discussing how glad we were that the bus drivers choose their new routes in November. We are hoping for a new driver. We’ve had this driver before and she’s nice and competent… no complaints, except she wants to go to the parking lot instead of pulling up in front of the house. She thinks it’s safer. It’s not, really. We have to walk Ben along an area that’s pretty blind, and no sidewalk. And the alley/street along the parking lot may not be five lanes wide, but cars still speed down it. The front of the house would just be easier and better. So we hope for a new driver.

Ben’s bus passed at 1:46pm. Daughter and I walked around to meet it. The driver had pulled all the way to the end of the alley/street next to the parking lot. Sheesh! We got to the open bus doors, then they let Ben come down. We walked him through the parking lot and down the blind part and around the corner, past the neighbor’s house and up our driveway, past the other neighbor’s house and finally into our house. I noticed the quality of the sunlight… definitely dimmed, definitely autumnal. It made me a little sad.

We came inside and got shoes, socks, jacket, tie and pants off Ben. Then he started asking about dominoes. “Where’s the dominoes?” We showed him all his dominoes, including the dotted ones he’d brought from school. It wasn’t good enough. He started ramping himself up. Swell! His teacher emailed Daughter that he’d had a good day, done well on transitions, no problems. I guess he used it all up at school cuz he wasn’t doing great with this transition. He went outside and moved the stuff from gate and was yelling and working himself up more. He came back inside telling me to get dressed and go to the store. I asked him for what. He said dominoes with dots. I handed him my tablet and told him to look for some. (he goes to the Amazon shopping app)

It gave him a few minutes to calm down and focus. He took the tablet into the living room after about ten minutes, then got distracted by what Daughter was watching on her laptop. (Demon Knight) She gave him his 2:30 meds a little early, and he seemed to settle down. Whew! I was hoping that was the end of it.

Ben watched parts of the movie with Daughter, it was nice to see them hanging out and getting along. I went outside while he was watching the movie to fix the gate, and stayed outside to pick a pocketful of pecans. There are SO many more that I can’t reach with both feet on the ground. I’m resisting the urge to climb to get them. I have a feeling if I start climbing, I’ll start falling and falling and injuring myself is something I’m trying to avoid.

At 4pm Ben came in for the third time to ask for Pink Cookies. I had given him the two open boxes that he’d partially picked and eaten the frosting off of each cookie, leaving the cookie. The open boxes weren’t good enough. He wanted NEW Pink Cookies. He drives me bonkers with how wasteful he is. He wont eat chips unless it’s from a freshly opened bag, with the Starburts he was only eating the red ones. I could stop buying the cookies for him, and I might have to, but some days we do what we have to to keep the peace. Santa Ana winds, big day of doing his best at school, tired and entering the Chaos Hours… gotta pick our battles. Gotta ask if this is “a hill worth dying on”. The waste of $5.00 cookies is more about how I hate wasted food than the cost or his pickiness.

Daughter will be making pizza for Ben’s dinner tonight. Then bath and bedtime. Tomorrow will be a day of excitement for him. But first we have to get through tonight as best we can.

Another random song I like.

A pretty good day. I do love Mondays because that’s when the beloved GLYSB comes. It comes on Tuesdays too, so there will be Happy Dancing at 7:30am PDT. There will be grocery shopping tomorrow also. There may be other things too… we’ll figure that out tomorrow. I hope you’ll join our Adventures. Whether we sit around and relax, run errands or have drama and chaos, we always try to have some fun and laughs too. ¡Hasta mañana!

.

.

HUGS!

.

.