MIL: "Oh, don't worry about it, we'll carry the [extremely heavy, requiring two hands] crocks down to the basement."
Me: ".... no please don't."
Me: "You can sign up for a membership to [local nature garden] online, it's super easy."
FIL: "I just don't trust the internet."
Me: "Don't worry, all your financial transactions are processed there anyways!"
MIL & FIL, repeatedly: "There's just nowhere to put this."
Me: "You could get rid of it."
Them: "We just can't bear to let it go. We'll put it in the basement."
Me: "Okay! The garage sale will just be that much bigger when you die."
(I do actually care about them and want them to be okay, but a a certain amount of snark is needed to deal with people who LITERALLY brought almost 30 tables, 45 chairs, and a five-foot-high pile of rugs to a six-room house.)
The in laws are now here. While I recognize they are not at their best after uprooting their whole lives, I'm also a bit surprised at how not-okay they are. They're tired and overwhelmed... and also I filled out a new-patient visit request for them yesterday. They're worn out... and also somewhat unable to prioritize (though that has always been true, it's just worse now).
Anyhow, I'm glad they're here, because it was definitely time. More of the everyday stuff is for sure landing on me, and I am not at all surprised. In some ways I think it's easier for them to ask me for help because I'm not THEIR child.
But it's still a lot.
Dr. S: Five wires? FIVE wires? How? WHY? One outlet, one switch, one fixture....
[Somewhat later]
Dr. S: What are you doing?
Me: I'm filtering paint through a stocking. It's kind of old.
Dr. S: WHY.
Me: This is a thing people do!
Dr. S: Yes. During the Depression.
So my in-laws are moving here permanently in 9 days and I both advocated for this and am glad. However.
First, I acknowledge that I am a bossy, take-charge kind of person.
But second: there are many moments when I am forcibly reminded of my mother in law washing the (new, unused) disposable silverware before my BIL's wedding while the rest of us frantically set out the CHAIRS and TABLES and FOOD.
These Deadly Prophecies: teen sorcerer has to figure out the mystery of her mentor's death. Fun, well written, not scary. Recommend.
Vaster Wilds: book club book which manages to be both grim and wholly unrealistic, as if the author had never set foot in a woods. Hated every page, 0/10, definitely not for me.
Three Kinds of Lucky: new series from Kim Harrison, great premise, but has such bad Famous Author Syndrome that I started checking halfway through if it was going to be over soon. Would be amazing at half the length; I abandoned ship near the dramatic ending due to not caring about any of the main characters any more.
Dreaming Spies: I read this during the early pandemic and, like, didn't form memories due to the everything. Good, but not as good as the first ones in the series. I feel they get increasingly unlikely. Emperors and Cole Porter, really?
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands: A delightfully strange fantasy novel with wonderful characters, second in a series. Liked it even better than the first.
The Blighted Stars: decent story which would have been better without the mild romance shoehorned in. Sci fi with alien fungus.
The Unspoken Name: weird and interesting portal fantasy, with liberally borrowed elements out of many world folklore. Recommend.
Bookshops and Bonedust: okay, but much less charming than the first one. Would borrow from library, but not buy.
Starter Villain: unserious popcorn. I enjoyed it. There are cats.
