It's caught up to me; full-blown flare, and I'm sicker than . . . well, you know. Shares needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

Nope, not yet. No functional bedroom, and thus no sleep, and now I'm paying for it with a full-bore autoimmune exacerbation. For those of you who don't know what this kind of autoimmune complex does, put it this way: Among many, many, many other things, it makes me feel as though I have a fever all the time, only without the fever (i.e., no actually change in body temp, but all the pain that goes with it anyway). You know the horrible all-over body aches you get with a fever? I have those, all over, 24/7/366 (yes, leap year too). The difference between my baseline and full-blown flare is, say, the difference between the pain that accompanies a fever of 99, and one that accompanies 105+. Now, it's actually never that low in terms of pain, but you get the idea. I often say that I'm non-functional, and I'm not in the way that, for example, any employer would expect and demand, but on days like today, I'm not functional at all. It's a product of too many months (more than a year) of pushing it and pushing it and getting virtually no real sleep; lack of sleep is about the most damaging thing there is for folks with autoimmune complexes, because it's the only chance our bodies get to heal.

So, no; no new photos, no nothing tonight. I will note that Miskwaki is much improved, and while I wouldn't go so far as to say that about Dahlia, she is a fighter and she is determined to get herself around. When I went out to check on the chickens for the night, she's long since gotten herself into position inside the coop — after, it seems, having laid an egg in the opposite corner. 

So here's the copy and paste: I'm just gonna repeat what I said last night; no, I'm not even gonna bother block-quoting, because I'm literally too wiped out. As I've been saying, we have to figure out how to do all this labor, the cabinets, the appliances, the water softener, and the fix of that damn septic system now. I have no idea how, but we're going to push as far as we can. And as I also said, this means that the pressure is now on me even more to make sales to make up the differential. It also means that the Home Depot and Lowe's gift cards become ever more crucial, given what we still have to buy to make the place livable. Right now, Home Depot cards specifically are absolutely the most valuable thing in the world. So here are the links:

• Wings's site, for sales;
• Lowe's cards (the physical version) via our Amazon wishlist;
• Lowe's e-cards (delivered via e-mail) here; and
• Home Depot cards via the company site. The e-version using my e-mail address is great; I take the tablet to the store with me, and they scan it off the screen.

Please share them all, as much as possible. One large sale would go a long way toward making up the difference (the water heater is paid in full, but now there's all the other stuff, including the softener that has to go in before hook-up; yes, it's expensive, but it's going to save us a ton in the long run). Many thanks, especially to CS and to BM; we're profoundly grateful to you and for you. Much love to all, and maybe some goods vibe wouldn't be a bad idea since I'm not in any position to do work related to the house tomorrow, and I have no choice.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.