Part 273 ~ 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.

I took pictures, cooked “orange chicken” in the toaster oven, and kept an eye on Ben while Daughter slept. Sunrise was Meh at first, but there was a brush fire to the north and I think the smoke is what caused the orangish clouds. They weren’t there before… no clouds, all day.

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Daughter did get up at 5pm, which honestly surprised me. I took a few more pictures… the one of the Moon with Jupiter and Saturn was taken around 5:30pm.

At bath time, Ben put up minimal resistance but it wasnt really a problem. We got everyone and everything ready and left a little early. Daughter wanted to get the unknown overwith. She was pretty sure she’d be working with COVID patients. We dropped her off, came home, The Boys were tucked in, and Daughter was texted.

She texted back with the news that she would be working with COVID patients. That meant changing into hospital scrubs, (then changing back to personal scrubs to go home) working with a partner, and full PPE. She told me the Emergency Department had Thirty-one people who were COVID positive, waiting for beds to open. They are going to convert her entire unit. I asked her if her co-workers were angry about the stupidity of not wearing a mask, or following guidelines, she said “Oh, yeah!”

It sucks that there has been such a surge in cases… that people chose to ignore their safety, and the safety of others. Daughter had been stressing about work, concerned that she’d get it and infect me and Ben. It’s actually better for her anxiety to just dive in, and get used to working with the Kootie people. That way she’s not gonna wonder every day she’s scheduled whether or not it will be with the Kootie. Now she knows, she will be working a COVID unit, ALL the patients will have the Kootie.

Things and Stuff, I ate my entire Double Double Animal Style, which surprised me, texted with both daughters periodically, uploaded the four minute Parrots video to YouTube as suggested by wonderful reader Jeff, dozed a little, took my meds around 11pm and konked around 11:30pm.

The Bounce came at 4:45am, followed by “cuddles”. I managed to keep him in bed, under the blankets with me until 5:30am. Amazing, right?! Then it was off to the living room for Couch Sittin Duty. I didn’t sit down though, I was looking at the sky. If I have to be up before dawn, I wanna see Venus… and I did.

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Too bad I can’t see Venus from my kitchen window… I’d stay warmer inside, right next to my friend, the Coffee Dragon, and take ALL the pictures from the window. No visits from Georgie or Gracie today.

We left on time to get Daughter from work. We waited… and waited… and waited… Her relief hadn’t come to take report yet, so she couldn’t leave. Finally after fifteen minutes of overtime, forty-five minutes after the other nurse clocked in, Daughter had the Charge Nurse drag her relief out of the break room. Daughter specifically asked the Charge cuz she’s had issues with this gal before. She wanted someone in the “higher levels” to witness the problem, maybe DO something about it.

Anyway, instead of leaving at 7:25am, she got in the car at 7:47am… exhausted. We came home, Daughter went to her room, said she’d be up at 2pm, all I said was “okay”, without sarcasm or disbelief (really! I was an Honor Thespian in school… I can act!), and Ben, Zeus and I settled on the couch under blankets. I’d turned Sven’s lights on earlier, so before falling into the dent in the couch I peeked at him. He cracked an eye, then closed it. I moved the lights and heat coil directly over him and left him alone to sleep, envious.

Ben and I just hung out. I left a small, new box of chalk in Ben’s newest chalk bucket. Something for him to do. We had a few bad moments when he was freaking out about a specific piece of chalk, pointing to the box. I tried to help him. He kept saying “light green chalk” so I went through the bucket, pulling all the green ones out, but he was still freaking out. Then the 12:30pm med alarm went off for his Adderall. I gave him the half pill and got the other identical smaller box of chalk from my closet and gave it to him. That’s forty-eight pieces of new chalk today. It solved the looming catastrophe though, so all good.

Daughter got up at 2:15pm, we did the super secret ceremony for the Changing Of The Couch Sitters, then I went to get Horizontal and charge my phone. Oh man, my back was happier on my bed! Zeus had been laying on the end of the chaise part of the couch, the Couch Sittin spot. He started out curled in the standard K9 position, but over time he’d stretched out, full length, diagonally. I was left trying to sit around him. Why didn’t I just make him move? Because I was cold and he was warm. I traded being a popsicle for being a pretzel. I’m very flexible so I prefer pretzel to popsicle, TYVM. Ben continued to play with his chalk, leaving multi-colored piles of chalk dust here, there, and everywhere.

I went out to take the Sciency pictures at 3:25pm like usual and found the sky completely covered in dark clouds in the southwest. I’d looked out on my way to Horizontal Time and the south was hazy, but the west was clear and blue. I guess the high pressure we’ve had left us. I don’t know if there will be a sunset to see tonight or not.

Daughter is cooking Ben’s steak dinner early. He really hasnt eaten much today, even though the snacks were placed within reach by his loyal peasant, me. Then, we do the routine before Driving Miss Daisy.

I’m really liking Dirty Honey. I’ll be keeping my ears ready for more from this band.

Just another mellow Thor’sDay… glad it’s not Tuesday, cuz that was a mad day, a rushed around crazy day… just another mellow Thor’sDay. Song rip-off aside, it was a mellow day. Tomorrow’s agenda starts the same as today’s. Hopefully a later wake-up for me, and an earlier clock-out for Daughter, but just as mellow. No Driving Miss Daisy tomorrow night. And Hopefully Younger will get a nice birthday present of an email with a negative test result. This IS Casa Cuckoo so all those nice things could happen or part of Skynet could fall into my backyard. Ya just never know. ¡Hasta mañana!

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HUGS!

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