Upon returning from long vacations, I typically feel like no time at all has passed here at home. It’s a weird feeling, as if I’ve disappeared Outlander style, yet returned to pick up just minutes from when I left off. It’s not as if I’ve crossed over into some parallel reality for the vacation’s duration – a parallel reality / timeline would proceed apace with my regular one. Rather, it feels as if I’ve jumped to some perpendicular reality/timeline in which my experiences barely overlap with my usual routine. I’ve also found that the longer I’m gone, the more intense this sensation. Years ago, I returned from six weeks away. Everything in my house felt and looked the same except that I had to blink away some strange aura that seemed to shimmer around its furnishings. On my first day back this time, I looked for evidence that my regular life had leapt forward three weeks. I noticed that the saplings newly p...