u/CharmingPeony

I am an authorized user of my parents’ account. I don’t have any relationship with Wells Fargo other than my parents have an old bank account there with 135K. Anyways, my parents retired and moved to Canada and want me to help them close this account. I thought all I had to do was go to the bank and have them wire it to my parents RBC account - their RBC wealth management guy provided all the numbers and instructions in a sheet that my dad forwarded me so I’m pretty sure the wiring instructions are correct. I’m also not being scammed - my parents have been talking about sorting out their finances and consolidating for awhile, and I’ve known about this account for years.

I went in person and nobody at the Wells Fargo branch could do it for me. Like they tried, even had the branch manager look over their shoulder, but no one there could figure it out. This is from Denver to Canada so not to like from some rural village to some exotic locale. They didn’t specifically say why, just like an hour of trying concluded that they couldn’t do it. I asked if I should go to another bank branch and the banker told me “honestly your best bet is to take it out as a cashiers check and mail it.” This sounds incredibly… I don’t know… weird and risky? Like am I right that if the cashiers check got lost in the mail, it would be just money, floating out there that anyone could cash and something I couldn’t cancel and at best I’d have to wait for them to reissue in 90 days?

I am visiting my parents at the very end of November and I could physically carry such a check with me, but I feel like that’s such a 1900s solution for modern day and that’s more than two months from now. If there is no other solution, I could do that but yeah, not ideal.

I also thought of taking the money out but depositing it in my own account at Bank of America, waiting for the check to clear, and wiring the money from my Bank of America - I’ve wired money from Bank of America to Canada before without any issues, but with 135K I wonder if it would trigger some sort of reporting? Not that I have anything to hide, I just don’t want to affect my taxes or something weird.

The tl;dr summary is I like love the writing, world immersion, complex morality and charm from Fallen London, Emily Short games, Inkle and A Study in Steampunk. I like alternative history or historic fiction or retold folklore (doesn't have to be Victorian/Steampunk, for some reason I just ended up reading a lot of IF works in that area).

I dislike too much navigational aspects (especially if it's without a map (Bronze), long waiting times (Fallen London), and modern/scifi, horror or high fantasy.

As far as real books go, I love books like The Alienist, 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Devotion of Suspect X, Madeline Miller's Circe and Song of Achilles, The Bear and the Nightinggale, The Historian, but cannot get into Lord of The Rings or any proper Eldritch horror if that makes sense.

Loved:

Fallen London

• Pros: Absolutely loved the setting, characters, writing style, deep lore
• Cons: Too much waiting for me, I played it for months and then lost interest. World design and writing is SO top tier, but I want to get lost and immersed in a story not schedule my life around a candle

Bronze (Emily Short)

• Pros: Loved the writing style and how she sets the mood and makes the characters real. Played a few other of her shorter games like Alabaster, Galatea, First Draft of a Revolution. She is really a master writer.
• Cons: I don't particularly like a lot of maps and guessing on what commands to input

A Study in Steampunk

• Pros: Loved the writing, loved the story, basically this is a top tier one for me.

80 days

• Pros: Another top tier one for me, really no criticisms other than I've played it a lot and nearly explored everything. The navigation was totally fine in this one

Liked

Sorcery (Inkle!) (Honestly, struggling to put this between Loved or Liked)

• Pros: Well written and atmospheric, a good balance between the sparser text of 80 days and the more novel like text of Study in Steampunk
• Cons: I think high fantasy is too much for me, I like alternative history or historic fiction or like retold folklore, but high fantasy is not my jam

Mask of the Rose

• Pros: Similar to Fallen London. Spent many hours playing all the endings already
• Cons: Somehow weaker writing and world building than FL

Sunless Seas/Skies

• Pros: Same awesome things as Fallen London
• Cons: Still relatively slow and I think I don't like the actual gaming aspect or navigational elements, I think I prefer story

Affairs of the Court (same author as A Study)

• Liked this one less than a Study in Steam Punk, despite being the same author until much later in the game when stakes are much higher. I did not find the world immersion as intense or the characters as well drawn out. But still kept my interest, especially trying to survive the last chapters.

Disliked:

Sherlock Holmes Affairs of the Heart

• The writing stylistically did not match my expectations. It was rambling and incoherent sometimes, maybe just too much "tumbler-esque introspection stream of consciousness" and not enough stiff upper lip Victorian the way that 80 days, a Study in Steampunk, and the original Arthur Conan Doyle novels all have. Gave up after three pages of manic pixie dream girl pigeon chasing.

Samurai of Hyuga

• Another one where I couldn’t get into the writing style. The MC thinks in a western POV and using very modern language, there’s lots of Japanese words interspersed, like the author clearly did some research, but not deep enough immersion to invoke any of the times, literary style, cultural sensibilities or Japanese POV/thinking

The tl;dr summary is I like love the writing, world immersion, complex morality and charm from Fallen London, Emily Short games, Inkle and A Study in Steampunk. I like alternative history or historic fiction or retold folklore (doesn't have to be Victorian/Steampunk, for some reason I just ended up reading a lot of IF works in that area).

I dislike too many navigational aspects (especially if it's without a map (Bronze), long waiting times (Fallen London), and hardcore scifi, horror or high fantasy.

As far as real books go, I love books like The Alienist, 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, The Historian, Madeline Miller's Circe and Song of Achilles, The Bear and the Nightinggale, but I cannot get into Lord of The Rings or proper Eldritch horror if that makes sense.

Loved:

Fallen London

• Pros: Absolutely loved the setting, characters, writing style, deep lore
• Cons: Too much waiting for me, I played it for months and then lost interest because it was just too annoying to schedule my life around the candle system. I want to just sit down and get lost for an hour or two, not like 20 mins at a time.

Bronze (Emily Short)

• Pros: Loved the writing style and how she sets the mood and makes the characters real. Played a few other of her shorter games like Alabaster, Galatea, First Draft of a Revolution. She is really a master writer.
• Cons: I don't particularly like a lot of maps and guessing on what commands to input

A Study in Steampunk

• Pros: Loved the writing, loved the story, basically this is a top tier one for me.

80 days

• Pros: Another top tier one for me, really no criticisms other than I've played it a lot and nearly explored everything.

Liked

Sorcery (Inkle!) (Honestly, struggling to put this between Loved or Liked)

• Pros: Well written and atmospheric, a good balance between the sparser text of 80 days and the more novel like text of Study in Steampunk
• Cons: I think high fantasy is too much for me, I like alternative history or historic fiction or like retold folklore, but high fantasy is not my jam

Mask of the Rose

• Pros: Similar to Fallen London. Spent many hours playing all the endings already
• Cons: Somehow weaker writing and world building than FL

Sunless Seas/Skies

• Pros: Same awesome things as Fallen London
• Cons: Still relatively slow and I think I don't like the actual gaming aspect re: relatively slow navigational elements, I think I prefer story

Affairs of the Court (same author as A Study)

• Liked this one less than a Study in Steam Punk, despite being the same author until much later in the game when stakes are much higher. I did not find the world immersion as intense or the characters as well drawn out. But still kept my interest, especially trying to survive the last chapters.

Disliked:

Choices

• Accidentally got this early on when I wasn't sure what I was looking for and had just finished Affairs of the Court and it came up as a recommendation. I don't like dating sims.

Sherlock Holmes Affairs of the Heart

• The writing stylistically did not match my expectations. It was rambling and incoherent sometimes, maybe just too much "tumbler-esque introspection stream of consciousness" not enough stiff upper lip Victorian the way that 80 days, a Study in Steampunk, and the original Arthur Conan Doyle novels all have.

Samurai of Hyuga

• I didn’t get past the free content because the writing stylistically didn’t work for me. Seemed like a very western and contemporary voice with Japanese words interspersed, like the author clearly did some research, but not deep enough immersion to invoke any of the times, literary style, cultural sensibilities or Japanese POV/thinking

Jonangu and Saihoji were absolutely stunning for me in March, the early spring green of the moss and the plum blossom and camellia grove in Jonangu was like heaven on earth. With that said, I am bringing my parents back in late November/early December and am wondering if:

1. Saihoji will still be a mossy green (I come from a climate where the hot summer would ruin moss)
2. If Jonangu should still make it on my list ... it is kind of far from everything else on my list and given our time frame, I was wondering if I should just do Saihoji and Joju-Ji (the latter I've heard is particularly magical for fall foliage)

Last time I was there briefly and spent one afternoon eating through Kuromon market and dinner at the crab restaurant in Dotonburi and evening drinks at the rooftop bar at the Centara which had a lovely view. Oh and one very fancy multicourse champagne and sushi brunch at Cuvee hotel.

I feel like maybe I got the tourist version of food but honestly I wasn’t picky and did 0 research as the only reason I was there in the first place is because my flight got rerouted there when the most recent Iran war started in March so I had this day and half layover I never expected.

I’m going back in November with my parents and want to give them more of an experience.

I have been to Kyoto before earlier this year in March, last time I stayed at the Gate Hotel Kyoto Takasegawa which was lovely. Now I am bringing my parents (elderly) there and I cannot decide between Hotel Mume (which is highly rated but rooms look a little dated) vs. Mitsui Garden Hotel or Nohga Hotel Kiyomizu Kyoto which is more modern but also highly rated. My mom likes things cute and quaint, and my dad likes things shiny and modern and glass. I think they would have probably both liked Gate hotel but it's oddly very booked up for my dates and wildly expensive. I do not need the hotel to speak Japanese or plan things for me as I did already do an exploratory trip in March and have a good idea of the places and itinerary for my parents

https://preview.redd.it/7wnrnptt5zhh1.png?width=1054&format=png&auto=webp&s=6141539c8755d0b9c2dd13ff260f2016a24476d9

Since the last time I asked this question, I had a good portion of front lawn removed. I live in a new build and it's mostly super compacted hard clay, rocks and construction debris. I asked this question two months ago back when I was looking at lower effort solutions like driller radishes and based on the responses, I am now moving forward with a plan to get 8 additional inches of the dirt loosened and removed and tilled. I already have three inches have been removed from the sod cutter) and then a shipment of quality compost from a soil company in a farming community up north from me and then mix it - compost, some of existing dirt, and then get a free chip drop and cover the whole thing.

There used to be an expanded shale company near me in Golden, but it shut down in recent years and I can no longer get enough expanded shale (which was what I had been planning on adding). I also found some mixed information about whether it's really that great here (it is certainly expensive and very hard to find now). So now I'm leaning towards skipping it. Not sure what else to add or if additional stuff is necessary beyond the compost.

But I wanted to check in with the sub again and get some thoughts as to the Plan as I'm ready to get it done with and want to do it properly.