The Aliens Are Coming!!

My husband and I were very fortunate in that when we purchased our home, it came with an attached (but not internally accessible) in-law suite. The original plan was to open the entire house, suite included, to make a bigger home to house the many children we hope to be blessed with (this was before discovering the joys of attached parenting when the thought was that each child would be in a crib/bed of their own from day one forward). Well, two weeks after closing on the house, my father-in-law had several strokes. So now, instead of lots of DIY home improvements, we have an intact in-law suite occupied by one (somewhat crazy) 61 year old. I think/know that my husband is quite relieved to have dodged the DIY bullet.

Father-in-law has always, always been something of an odd duck. And now, sans strokes, the oddness has amplified. How much of that is due to the strokes vs now having an excuse to be odd, I'm not sure. Pre-stroke, after introducing someone to his dad, hubby would always lower his voice and say, "yeah, we have to be careful with him here...at home, we put tape on all the mirrors so he wouldn't fall through to another dimension." And he would only be half joking.

I found out over the weekend that Father-in-law had a series of weird dreams he had to tell hubby about. He remembers the tree falling on the house, and remembers us coming outside to tell him about it. But then he tries to tell hubby that later that night, a spaceship hit our house And he KNEW it was a spaceship because a few hours after the initial impact, he heard all the aliens walking around on the roof and was scared to come outside. Hubby then tries to explain to him that the aliens were, in fact, hubby on the roof trying to asses the damage. Nope, Father-in-law is staunch in his defense of the alien story and of narrowly escaping the dreaded probe.

The lesson learned from this - the next time Father-in-law starts getting under my skin more than usual, I'll have to break out the flashlights and ladder and re-enact the invasion of the aliens!