Ch 12 Primo moves the stereo to the living room because apparently, Sly and Doris cannot entertain themselves for one single morning

When I walk back into the house, Primo, who is supposed to be working, is unpacking boxes in the living room. I tell him about what happened at the doctor and then look at the mess.

Me: What are you doing?

Before Sly and Doris arrived, he cleared all the unpacked boxes out of the dining room and the living room, but his method of clearing is to move them to the basement, not to unpack them and put the contents away.

We upgraded from a dining room filled with unpacked boxes to a basement filled with unpacked boxes.

 

See? No room for a TV.

And now the unpacked boxes are making their way back upstairs. Great.

Primo: I’m setting up the stereo. My mom and dad can’t go downstairs to watch TV. And I can’t bring the TV up here by myself because it’s too big.

Me: Why do they need the stereo?

Primo: They’re bored.

Me: They knew that you had to work most of the week, right? I mean, they knew they would be responsible for entertaining themselves.

Primo: Yes, but I guess they assumed that they could just watch TV or listen to the radio.

Me: I would never think about watching TV or listening to the radio at someone else’s house. I would never assume that is what I would be doing.

Primo: That’s because you’re a reader and grew up without TV.

Me: Yeah, I guess, but even if I did watch a lot of TV, I wouldn’t think that I would go to someone else’s house and watch whatever I wanted to there. I wouldn’t think that I could go and just take over the TV or the radio.

Primo: That’s because you aren’t entitled enough.

Me: Clearly. I guess it hasn’t occurred to them that our house is quiet on purpose.

Primo: They always have the radio or the TV on.

Me: I know. The noise makes me crazy. I hate it. I like quiet.

Primo: I know. I’m sorry. It’s this or listen to them complaining.

Me: Or have your mom fall down the stairs to the basement. Those stairs are worse than the stairs to upstairs.

Primo: She would not be able to take those stairs.

Me: And I would be really cranky if she fell and got blood on the basement carpet. That carpet is new. At least on Saturday, she fell on hardwood. That would have been easy to clean if we had to.

Primo: Hey!

Me: What I don’t get is how people who complain as much as they do about how their grandchildren aren’t exposed to Culture with a capital C watch as much TV as they do.

Primo: I guess there isn’t that much to do where they live.

Me: Was that a surprise? That there wasn’t that much to do? There is stuff to do there, but it’s all in town. But their house is a 20 minute drive from everything.

Primo: I guess.

Me: Because I did serious research before we bought this house. I mean, we already lived here and know Austin, but I looked for a neighborhood where we could walk to the things we want to do, like restaurants and the library and the grocery store. I looked for sidewalks and walking paths. It doesn’t happen by accident. You would think they would have checked that stuff out before investing $300,000 in a house.

Primo: I don’t think they thought about those things.

Me: I guess that’s how you end up in a boring suburban housing development where you have to drive to everything. No wonder they are bored.