In deepest water there's a line of silver

Update on the night soil situation: after street cleaning early this morning, the atmosphere of Cloaca Maxima ground zero has not disappeared, but it has at least diminished to the point where it is possible to leave the house and cross the street and catch a bus without having to hold one's breath and remember not to light matches. With any luck it will rain some in the next few days and finish it off. In the meantime I hope Šulak the lurker in bathrooms catches whoever dumped this crud in the first place. I really wanted to write last night, but I was so wiped out from phone calls and fire trucks and the smell that I just went to bed by midnight.

The package waiting for me as I left the house this morning was from yhlee, who sent me a new pendant of elisem's. It is a palm-sized entanglement of silver wire, abalone shell, and nazar-blue seed beads called "The Sea That Marks the Heart," like a map of shoals and currents. I can see that I'll have to find it a story, too.

Today is a day with my niece.