Part 293 ~ 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.

In keeping with the craptacular day I was having, even sunset was a bust… BOO!

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Daughter came back out and took over Couch Sittin Duty around 5pm. I told her I had ordered some chalk. She said “good idea.” Then I told her I ordered twelve each of the sets from Crayola that come with a twenty-four and a forty-eight piece box. She said “Yeah.” Then I told her I found an office supply place that had twelve piece and sixteen piece boxes, so I ordered eight of each. She said “Might last him a couple, maybe three weeks.” I told her I spent $250 total on chalk but I got free shipping on all of it, plus the credit I used is zero interest if we pay it off in six months. She said “That’s good. We can do that.” I told her I never wanna go on another Great Chalk Search ever again. She said “Valid.” Then I went to my room.

Ben played with his chalk until it was time to get into the tub. He didn’t procrastinate or give me any trouble at all. I got him cleaned up, then he played for a while. He went to his room after for bedtime and that was trouble-free as well.

But just to put a cherry on top of the craptacular sundae of a Tuesday, my mother called. I didn’t answer, I wasn’t in a space to talk to her when she called. It was shortly after my return from the Search. She left me a voicemail saying “please call me back, I only need five minutes of your time.”

I just couldn’t… her tone was too passive-aggressive to deal with until 5:30 or so when I couldn’t handle the Sword Of Damocles anymore. After exchanging pleasantries she told me she couldn’t remember why needed me to call her back. So she kept me on the phone for another twenty minutes while she talked about nothing, in between yelling at her dog, and into my ear. Yep! The cherry AND the nuts!

Things… Stuff… Call at 8:51pm from Younger asking if she could stay at the house tonight and possibly longer… food… At 11:30pm I took my meds and slept sometime after midnight. I didn’t hear from Younger again, and I wasn’t really surprised. She wasn’t in tears or sounding super upset when she called. She and Partner either worked it out, or Younger stayed with a friend. I’ll text her later, but she’s an adult and her relationship is her business.

I slept a little better last night, but still woke up at 5am. I decided to get up, hoping to use the baño in peace. (a reoccurring theme for me it seems) I hadn’t even closed the door before I heard the jingle-slam of Ben’s door opening and the pounding of six feet headed my way. SIGH…

I decided to follow Zeus outside and look for Venus. It was still super dark and super cold so I went back in. Around 6:15am I went out again. No Venus, but the sky was pretty and over the next hour I was back and forth taking a total of one hundred six photos. I actually took more, I deleted a bunch when I went through them, editing.

I’ve narrowed down the number as much as I could. It was so beautiful it was difficult to choose.

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It was an exciting hour for me. The two pictures of the single palm tree, before the picture of the Moon, has the flock of Parrots flying past. They were high, fast, and squawking away… music to my ears. Near the end, the gulls and the crows were arguing over some breakfast score. I think one of the gulls wound up with the prize. And the sky kept changing, right before my eyes. All of the photos were taken between 6:10am and 7:15am. Maybe five minutes either way at both ends, but an hour. One hour and the change was so dramatic! Totally worth the numb fingers!

Okay, I’ll move on… Ben had his meds on time and was very much full of energy. He wound up waking Daughter up yelling and scripting Angry Words. She came out to take over Couch Sittin Duty around 8:30am.

Ben continued to be a super SpazmaTaz. He was stealing Daughter’s blanket and generally messing with her. She played along, trying to keep the mood good. Ben seemed to be winding himself up though.

He came and Bounced me and was loudly “whispering” right into my ear. Oh man, I hate that! I wasn’t too happy with what he said either… “You have to get dressed. You have to go to the store for new chalk.” Seriously?! I told him that I looked at three stores yesterday and all the people bought all the chalk from the stores already. I told him that I ordered a LOT of chalk that will come in the mail and he needs to be patient.

He went out to the hallway and did his Ah-Ha Video thing, where he banged into the walls on either side, really hard, then threw himself on the floor. He did that for five or ten minutes then stayed down and hollered “Gramma! I need help!” Drawing on my high school theater experience, I got up and went to him as if I were saving his life, then “helped” him get up.

He followed me back to my room. I handed him my tablet and asked if he wanted to watch it. He started browsing through the streaming apps. Five minutes later he says “Fix it. I need help.” He wanted to watch a Pirates Of The Caribbean movie that wasn’t available for free. My tablet, and all the devices are password protected for purchases. We learned the hard way how quickly he can buy or rent movies he skims through, or sign up for other movie channels. We were able to get some of the charges removed, but it still cost us a couple hundred dollars over four devices. Little Bootyhead! Anyway, I bought the movie for him and he settled to watch it… eight dollars well spent. By 10am the house was finally calm.

Younger texted me that she’d stayed at home and Partner had left. We didn’t really discuss the issue that caused the disagreement or what she will do in the future. I’ve learned to just wait. Their relationship has always been volatile. She was okay-ish.

Ben went to the living room for a while, then went outside around 11:00am or 11:30am. He wasn’t out there long before I heard a sound I didn’t want to hear… he was busting the wall again. I went out and nicely, calmly reminded him that he needed to stop, and play somewhere else. He went to the Dirt Hole and worked on the cave under the deck. Not ideal, but a bazillion times better than busting the stucco off the side of the building that isn’t ours.

He spied a brick buried in the “cave” and wanted Daughter or me to “Help!” him get it out. We both declined. We didn’t say “No” (Ben doesn’t respond well to the word NO. We get creative with our responses to the contrary.) so he didn’t freak out, he just kept trying to get it on his own.

12:30pm meds were given on time, delivered to the Dirt Hole, and the calmness continued. He came back inside shortly after that and just hung out with Daughter in the living room.

After giving Ben his 2:30pm meds, Daughter told me she was going to her room to charge her laptop and to stretch out for a bit. I gathered my stuff and headed for the living room. It was time for my second tour of Couch Sittin Duty. Ben was watching his tablet or my tablet… A tablet, and being chill. He got a comical, surprised look on his face when he noticed that I’d taken over for Daughter.

Around 3:30pm Ben started falling asleep, so I woke him up. He was grumpy when I finally got him to wake up. He started with the “You need to get dressed, you need to go to the store for NEW CHALK!” I kept telling him I ordered chalk, it will come in the mail, and that there isn’t any chalk at the stores. Honestly, it’s gotten ridiculous. It’s not even about the dang chalk anymore.

It’s nearing sunset time. Only a couple hours til Ben can go to bed if he’s still so tired. Daughter is off work tonight so we’ll deal with whatever the night brings.

A blast from the past… fitting, and the camel in the video is a nice touch for Wednesday, yes?

A very much needed mellow day. I hope it continues. It was a bit bumpy this morning but Daughter and I were both prepared and helped Ben get through the SpazmaTaz period without any of us losing our cool. Daughter has to go back to work tomorrow night, so we’ll be doing laundry tomorrow. She planned to do it today, but we both… all three of us needed the downtime afforded today. So laundromat tomorrow. I need to pick up my meds soon too. Thanks again for all your support the past few days, and all the days, weeks, and months before. You guys help me keep going in a sane-ish fashion. ¡Hasta mañana!

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HUGS!

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