Part 309 ~ 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.

Most of the clouds were gone by sunset. It was still nice, and the Parrots did an extremely fast, squawking flyby.

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Ben ate his pizza, had his meds and bath and was ready to Drive Miss Daisy with no problems. The drive went fine, and he went right to his room and got in bed, where Zeus was waiting. Good Boys!

I was on a roll… I got all the Things, Stuff, email and miscellaneous other items done, plus had food ready by 9:30pm. I was eating when Daughter texted that work was actually pretty calm. She had FIVE empty beds and was only expecting one admission. I told her I hoped that meant the post-holiday spike was winding down. She seconded my hope. Her admission occupied her, and Food Coma dragged me under around 10pm.

I woke around 1:30am, decided it was too late to take my pill and dozed back off. Then woke and dozed and woke and dozed and woke… I should’ve taken the dang pill! A little after 3am I woke up and stayed awake. Sigh…

It was nice to have a quiet house. I read some news and some posts. I read and sent some email. It was nice to start my day slowly. I went out to look for Venus around 6am, but she wasn’t visible. By the time she was high enough to be seen, it was too bright from the rising sun.

Sunrise was really pretty in all directions and four gulls came to visit, circling and putting on a show. Mr Crow landed on his Sunrise Perch and squawked the Sun up. I took way too many pictures again so I turned it into a video. It’s too difficult for me to choose the best pictures… I like them all, want to share them all…

Ben and Zeus got up around 6:30am. I met Zeus coming out the side door as I was headed back inside after taking some pictures. I gave Ben his meds, refilled his water bottle, yadda yadda yadda. I also uncovered Mr Grumpy Beard but he was NOT ready to start the day.

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At 7:15am the alarm went off to remind me to go get Daughter from work. It only took Ben about five minutes to get out the front door. Pretty good for him actually.

She was waiting for us, got in the car and said “Quick, get me outta here!” I asked her what happened, I thought it was a calm night. She told me that she had to move five COVID patients to the other side (her unit is “U” shaped, with regular patients that need cardiac monitoring in the middle, and COVID rooms on the two sides. It has to do with fire doors and staff elevators… keeping the COVID areas isolated) so they could admit regular patients… and she was informed of this at 6:45am. Day shift starts at 7am, and the time from 7am to 7:30am is a transition time for the nurses to discuss any relevant information about the patients… “give/take report”. Just a bit of madness at shift change. We got home and she went to her room, Ben and I settled in the living room and another day at Casa Cuckoo continued.

While I had been outside taking too many pictures earlier, Ben had gone snooping for chalk. He found a small box that I didn’t really hide. After we were home and settled, he told me “Gramma, need more chalk.” I got him another box, twenty-four piece to go with the twelve he’d “found” earlier. About an hour later he told me he needed more chalk. I tried to get him interested in some of the chalk in his buckets, but he wasn’t having it. He was making one of his creations and he needed more chalk, new chalk. I got him a box of sixteen. Not the hill to die on… not at 9:45am with hours of Couch Sittin ahead of me.

Ben took a break from chalk around 10:30 and sat on the couch with me and watched his tablet. When he got bored with that, he got some of his Jenga size blocks and built a Sweeney Todd Barber Chair, action figure size. But he needed help and he needed tape. I spent the next hour or so doing what I call Arts and Crafts Time. Basically, I tape things together at angles and in ways that require a LOT of tape. He’s very creative, and he builds some cool stuff. I just hate the part where I have to make it go/stay “like this”. After mucho Huffing and Puffing the thing was completed to HRH’s satisfaction… for now.

Younger texted me around 1:30pm with her NEGATIVE test result from the County. We figured she was probably negative but when she came by a couple days ago to pick up our recycling, I handed it over the back fence. No hugs. It would really suck for Older to be vaccinated, go through the last ten months and catch the Kootie now. Better to be safe, even if it seems silly. Especially since there’s no way to keep Ben from getting it if I did. Anyway, I texted back that she could come get her mail since she had her paperwork proving she was Kootie-free.

Daughter got up and took over Couch Sittin Duty around 2:45. I went to get Horizontal and charge my phone. Younger called when she got off work, a little after 3pm. She’s going to stop by on her way home. Ben came in at 3:30pm and asked for more chalk… UGH! We really might not make it til the end of the month on what we have without a fight. No fight today though, Daughter has work again and we don’t want stress before Driving Miss Daisy.

Clouds are everywhere, I don’t think there will be a visible sunset tonight. Younger will be here visiting anyway, so it’s probably better. She won’t stay long, she’ll want to go home, she just got off work. We’ll be doing all the PreGame Show stuff.

Because I kept saying “I’m so cold!” all day today (because it only got up to 57°F [14°C] today, cold for SoCal) and this song came to mind, and I sang it. Welcome to Casa Cuckoo -The Musical…

Thanks for hanging out on a cold day. Today felt like it was all over the place even though I didn’t really do anything. Weather changes affect me and there’s a storm coming in. BOO! Its supposed to cold all week according to the Guessers. DOUBLE BOO! Driving Miss Daisy again tomorrow and Couch Sittin… Rinse, repeat. Wear your fuzzy socks and your hoodie and join us. ¡Hasta mañana!

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HUGS!

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