If you missed the start of this series, you can find it here. A lot of things will be the same or very similar.
I didn’t have to wake Daughter up. She got up on her own and took over… at 5:25pm, a little over an hour longer than she said. I had already made “orange chicken” for Ben. I took a couple more pictures, then went to my room and Daughter settled on the couch.
Five or ten minutes later Ben was in my room, eating and watching his tablet. He ate the fifteen nuggets I’d made pretty quickly. Daughter brought his meds in at 5:50pm as he was eating the last one. I ran his bath then, no reason to wait.
Ben had selective hearing or just wasn’t interested in following directions, so I spent a lot of time repeating myself. We did manage to Drive Miss Daisy on time.
The entire circular driveway at the entrance to the hospital was lined with cars when we got there. There was nowhere for me to pull over and drop her off. I wound up just stopping for a few seconds so she could jump out. Then we came home, I tucked The Boys in and texted Daughter.
All the usual Things and Stuff, I finally got caught up on my WP Reader. I was getting ready to take my pills around 10:30pm but Daughter texted me, she was taking a break and wanted to vent a little.
Then at 10:43pm an Emergency Alert went off on my phone. There was a fire about five miles away and they were evacuating. Two more Alerts came in at 11:10pm and at 11:49pm, as the fire moved southwest. It was driven by twenty-thirty mile per hour Santa Ana Winds from the east and northeast. Five miles seems close but the fire was burning away from us and the area was on the other side the eastern hills. From news reports it seems only one house was lost. A VERY large house. It was in a hilltop neighborhood that overlooks a golfcourse.
Anyway, I was tired and ready to sleep. I took my pills at 11:30 and had started to doze when the last Alert startled me awake. I think I was finally out for good around 12:15-12:30am.
The Bounce occurred at 4:17am. I looked at the time, told him to get under the blankets and chill, it was way too early to be up. He got up around 4:45am, baño I presumed, but he said those words on the way out… you know the words… “Gramma come living room.” And just to make sure I knew he was serious, he stopped and kicked the front door a few times. BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! Fan-Freakin-Tastic!
I got up, Huffing and Puffing, helped get him settled on the couch, texted Daughter to let her know we were up, then got some coffee. I looked out at the sky, but there was zero light on the horizon until around 6am. So, between 6am and 7am I was back and forth a few times, taking pictures and talking to crows. Then right around 7am Georgie and Gracie stopped by. One of them found breakfast and they were about to enjoy it, when an unwanted guest tried to join. The uninvited, third was chased away. I had to leave to go get Daughter, so said Goodbye to The Gs and told them I hoped they enjoyed their breakfast. I was able to take a couple quick pictures from my kitchen window as I was trying to get Ben up and out the door.
We picked Daughter up, no problems. She told me about her shift and about how it took four people to reposition one patient who weighed over six hundred pounds. I asked why they didn’t use the fancy shmancy device they had for heavier people, and she explained that it tops out at five hundred pounds. She also had two separate patients that thought they’d get a faster response by screaming “Help”, instead of using the call light, for every little thing. I think, and she agreed, that the people are probably just lonely and wanting company. Another side-effect of the pandemic… not allowing visitors is putting extra strain on the nurses as they try to take care of their patients physical health and sometimes their mental health as well.
Anyway, we got home, got past the whiney, wiggling Dogzilla monster and his Tail Of Destruction. Daughter went to her room, Ben started playing with his chalk, and I resumed my Couch Sittin Duty, originally begun at 4:45am.
Ben was kinda restless and bored today. He couldn’t decide what to do or once decided, gave up on it quickly. He did a lot of wandering. He told me to “get dressed and go to the store” a couple times. The first was for the still unidentified “window train”. I went into his room and went through his three milk crates full of cars and miscellaneous other stuff and pulled out a bunch of trains and gave them to him.
The next time was for “square Reese’s” I was dozing, unintentionally and I think he just wanted me to wake up cuz there was a regular pack of Reese’s in the fridge. I gave it to him and he didn’t even open it. I told him I wouldn’t be so sleepy if he’d quit waking me up in the dark time.
We just hung out and had a regular day. No major problems… just a little boredom on his part, but he’s a twelve year old kid, kids get bored. Adults get bored… or so I’ve heard. I personally haven’t experienced this phenomenon, maybe someday.
Daughter came stumbling out around 2:15pm saying “See! I told you I’d get up at 2:00!” I started laughing. I said “So the secret to getting you up when you say is…” she cut me off and said “shame me, yes.” I told her I wasn’t trying to shame her. Just stating a fact. She says one hour and it’s two. She never gets up at the time she says she will. That what I was going to say before she interrupted was “challenge” her… tell her I didn’t think she could do it, make her prove me wrong. Anyway, we did the super secret ritual of the Changing Of The Couch Sitters, and I went to get Horizontal until it was time to do Sciencey Stuff.
The Gathering of Data for the Science Project was completed. Be was in the dirt hole, digging and sweeping. Daughter was Couch Sittin. Now it’s just about time for actual sunset. Ben will be having steak for dinner tonight, Daughter is going to cook around 4:30… she says… then we’ll do the usual pre Driving Miss Daisy things. Yeah, yeah… rinse, repeat.
Random song… I like Bastille.
Another Casa Cuckoo day. Weird way of ending, too late… and too early start. No wonder my body takes over and shuts everything down and makes me feel narcoleptic from time to time. We had some fun and some laughs though, and that’s the important thing. Tomorrow’s agenda looks pretty much like today’s agenda, but that doesn’t mean anything. Random stuff happens all the time. It keeps life interesting. Oh, and Sven is still snoozing away… the temperatures are supposed to dip down around the freezing area for the next few nights. Brumation in Winter is what he’s supposed to do. When these Santa Ana Winds and cold temperatures stop, I’ll pester him awake again. ¡Hasta mañana!
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HUGS!
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King Ben's Grandma 
I was kind of teasing in one of my posts about Chatty Kathy – a girl in Declan’s class who constantly is talking about social stuff on zoom during class. Having had to sit through all those zooms I either thought it to be comical or annoying, but I really do think the same thing. The poor girl is missing her chance to socialize. The teacher only redirected her a couple of times, so I think she saw the same thing. Chatty Kathy had different social needs to be met for her mental health. All this isolation must have a lot of different effects on people.
Here’s hoping for a great day tomorrow! Nice and chill!
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Exactly. Some people, not us, need to interact with other people more. Daughter is aware and always takes time to treat the person, not just the patient. It’s just difficult when people abuse her kindness and start treating her like a personal servant.
But yeah, the mental health repercussions of the pandemic are going to be felt for years to come I think.💕🤗🥰
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It’s cold and windy and smoky… blahhhhh. Major migraine day here. Hope you get a few extra 💤
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Santa Ana sucky! Humidity at 9% I hope the yucky “M” goes away! Stay warm, its supposed to be in the 30s overnight here🥶 I think I’ll sleep in my hoodie😉💕
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I hope the fire damage wasn’t wide spread. I remember those alerts late at night, they do kill the sleepy bug. I hope tonight is better. Take care. Hugs 🤗
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I havent read anymore about the damage, but I think they got it under control pretty fast. It was in a neighborhood of mini mansions and I think only 1 house burned, mostly it was vegetation. The electricity has been shut down by SDG&E in a lot of the rugged back country areas to prevent fires while the Santa Ana winds are gusting. Hopefully no more fires🤞 we’ve had enough smoky air this year.
Those Emergency Alerts are so startling. We usually only get them when a child goes missing… Amber Alert
Enjoy your Friday! I hope it’s Fantastic!🤞💕🤗🥰🦋
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Stay safe and get some rest. Thanks 🙏 you too.
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Those are some wonderful photos of Georgie and Gracie! I’m happy it was a pretty calm day there. I sure hope you get a good night’s sleep. Hugs 🤗 🎶💃🏼💫💖
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Those were difficult pictures to get. The sun was coming up behind the buildings and the little shed they were on top of was in the shadows, so I had to focus toward the ground and lighten the pictures, just to see them.
I can’t wait til I have an actual camera! The 4× magnification isn’t that great and the quality goes down with the magnification. ☹ How can I do good Sciencey Stuff with poor equipment?🤓😆😂
It was a mellow day, but Ben developed selective hearing around sunset. He has problems around sunset like dementia patients sometimes do. On “Work Nights” it gets stressful, but we manage😉💕🦋🤗🥰💃🏼✨💫
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Oh my! You poor dear, Mi Hermana Cosmica ❤ Between the “ALERT”s and the BAM-BAM-BAM!s, it’s amazing you got any sleep! I love your sense of humor about it though! You preserve it quite well 😉 Thank goodness for mellow days! And those pics are spectack as always! ❤
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Thank you, Dearest Dude! I honestly don’t know if I’m coming or going most of the time anymore. My memory is horrible, the constant interruptions, even on mellow days, and the lack of sleep are taking their toll. Plus the humidity hanging at 9% makes my plaque psoriasis very unhappy. Having all my skin feel like an itchy sunburn and driving me bonkers!🤯🤪
I just keep stumbling along, trying to get through each day🤷🏼♀️😂
The Sun rises and the Sun sets and somehow, I just keep zombie shuffling along.
🤗🥰💕💖💃🏼🦋🌈🕊💌
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These fires are scary stuff – and a bit too near! Is this a particularly long fire season? I assumed the colder weather you’d been having meant they were over for this year. It’s good to be able to laugh about it all! 🙂
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Fire Season is pretty much all of Autumn and into Winter. Or all year long really. We had a wet Spring, so more vegetation in the back country canyons and hills. Then we get these “Santa Ana Winds” which is basically a high pressure driven shift in the winds from the west to the northeast. Northeast of us is the desert, so we get winds that come from the desert, through the valleys and mountain passes, picking up speed and they’re bone dry. 9% humidity is what we’ve had. It dries all the vegetation out and any little spark can set off a huge fire when the winds are gusting up to 50-60mph or higher. Fires are just part of life in California. We get fires every year. Not always as bad as this year, but the weather is changing. Santa Ana’s are common in winter but they usually only last 2 or 3 days. We had one last week and as soon as it weakened another one started. This one is supposed to last through the weekend. 🙄🤦🏼♀️
💕
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Thanks for the explanation. I can’t imagine living with 9% humidity. Worrying that it’s getting worse with climate change. Our weather is going the other way – wild, windy and wet with lots of flooding! 🙂
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How is the new coffee machine. You never know one day you can make me one. Probably won’t need to bring jumpers with me. Well maybe just one. I bet that’s something you don’t need much there. xxx
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The new Coffee Dragon is excellent! It even has a timer thingy so it can start brewing at whatever time I set. I set it for 5am because I’m usually awake by 5:30 or 6:00 and if I get up earlier, I can just start it then. (Yes, I’m excited by a timer thingy… very low tech🤣🤣)
YOU probably wouldn’t be bothered by the cold here, even though it was only 3°C this morning. I pretty much live in my hoodie. 💌💌💌
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First, I really enjoy Bastille. Their albums are terrific.
Second, sorry to hear about all those Emergency Alerts. We get them here, but of course ours are all about a tornado that just dropped out of the sky at a convenient location near me. Ugh.
Third, the Reese’s folks have come out with two newer versions recently. The “Take Five”, which is delicious and has lots of interesting ingredients, and the “Cluster”, which has pecans and is similar to one of those “millionaire” clusters but has peanut butter as well. I’ve had roughly 5,000 of both in the last month. Just thought you should know… 😉
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Take 5 I have seen and sampled… Yum! I will be on the lookout for the other.
Younger had gotten tickets for us to see Bastille when Pompeii was all over the radio. When the night of the concert arrived, I wasn’t doing well physically so we gave the tickets to her friend and his boyfriend. Apparently we missed a great show. ☹
The one experience I had with a tornado scared the crap out of me. I wouldn’t like living where they frequent… nope! I’ll stick with my fires and earthquakes, TYVM!
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