TideEbb of Flourish

I woke up at 4 again, but managed to go back to sleep this time. To elude the border guards at the frontier of the kingdom of sleep, you must not think of either the past or the future. You also can't think of anything disturbing or sad in the present moment. You can't think of risks you take or what you stand to lose. You cannot get involved in conversations with people who aren't there. If you do any of those thing, you will find yourself inexorably materializing into the waking world, and the dream kingdom will fade to a misty landscape seen on the far side of a wide river. It also helps not to have pain of any kind, and not to be short of breath, itchy, or too hot. It's no easy matter. It's like working a very complex spell. And yet, tiny children do it without effort. The magic of sleep has puzzled the greatest of wizards.

Anyway, sleep helps. Although it is still too hot. I was happy to learn that my sister, her husband, and her daughter the Gazelle all tested negative for COVID. They had been re-exposed. The Gazelle had been called back to in-person work, and then had to quarantine at her mom's, because someone at work got sick. I went out to water the garden, but got involved in doing more staking and tying up of tomatoes, and ran out of time. This turned out to be good, because it gave the Sparrowhawk time to kill the wasps who are again building a nest right next to the outdoor water faucet. They make me nervous every time I go to turn on the water, and I imagine I was making them nervous, too. I hate to poison them, but it was spray them or get injected with poison by them. If they'd promise not to sting me or my guests, I would let them live in my house, but until the arrival of the wasp-human universal translator, negotiation is not an option. I edited another chapter.