Habit Forming

Preston Dennett says an absolutely sure way of triggering an OBE or lucid dream (which he reckons are pretty much the same thing) is to keep checking your environment to see if it conforms to the Newtonian Laws- because if you do this in a waking state it will create a habit which extend into your dreams- and sooner or later you'll find yourself tapping a wall and your hand will go through it or you'll jump in the air and stay afloat- and them you'll know you're on the astral- and can begin to take conscious control of events. He keeps saying this method is "guaranteed"- and that's a strong word- so I'm taking up the challenge- and will be tapping and jumping on a regular basis...

We're Having A Heat Wave

We are having a heat-wave.

Mike and Su brought squirters to the Saturday BBQ. These are basically outsize syringes which deliver a short but powerful blast of water- and are best fired from the hip like sawn-off shotguns. The water pistols we had stashed away against such eventualities were completely outclassed so I filled the washing up bowl with water and slung it. From there things could only escalate. It was noted that Ivy and I were the last to lay down our arms. People tell me I'm competitive- which always surprises me slightly.

Yesterday I accompanied Alice and the kids around the stately homes of north west Kent. If anything the weather was even hotter.

This morning my mother's hearing aids went missing. We carried on looking long past the point where we'd realised this was the poltergeist's work and we were wasting our time. When he's ready to give them back they'll appear again- either in some perfectly obvious place or else some perfectly ridiculous one. She hasn't noticed they're missing so it would be wrong to call him cruel. Perhaps he's making some kind of a point- though quite what it is eludes me. Because she can't hear I decided we'd not bother to fire up the TV this afternoon- and she hasn't missed that either.

The forecast this morning was that it would continue hot with clouds gathering in the afternoon and the chance of thunder by the end of the week. As it happens, a thumping great thunderstorm has just passed right over the house and rained on us with tropical ferocity.