Sometimes it's not just the wind that takes your breath away. Shares (especially of the new platform) and sales very much needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

Sometimes, when the entire day is going exactly the opposite of how you intended, someone presents you with the kind of surprise that takes your breath away. 

We got a lot done today, but I got nothing of my own work accomplished. At the post office, amid the stack of medical bills, there was a yellow slip. It was a box from a dear friend, and I had absolutely no clue what it could be. So we opened it, and it was the absolutely incredible work of fiber art you see above: a star quilt in soft jewel tones of turquoise and gold and plum and russet, the quilting done in hearts and butterflies and dragonflies, unbelievably beautiful and a perfect match for our bedroom. Wings is up there snoozing under it right now. I'm speechless.

More of the "best-laid plans" problem today, with more bitterly cold high winds and too much to do and not enough time. As with yesterday, I didn't get thing one done on the crowdfunding platform, though, so nothing's changed from last night. As I said then, here's where things stand: The overall goal is my $25K+ in emergency medical bills, but for now, I'm trying to raise an initial $1,700 to take care of two specific bills: the local ambulance and the hospitalist's fee. We're $145 of the way toward it. A caveat: I have a lot of kinks to get worked out yet, but PayPal is now theoretically linked to the progress meter on the site. I say "theoretically," because I've just discovered that I apparently have to set up at least one other page to make the subscription "purchase" possible. Eventually, if you subscribe via PayPal (it's a monthly thing like Patreon), it will show, although for now the only way to do it is to hit the PayPal "Subscribe" button. I'm hoping to get that figured out and fixed tomorrow. I also need to figure out how to pin it to the main page, so for now, the only way to access it is here. Please share this link around on social media and elsewhere.

Tony's coming by on Thursday to spec out what remains to be done on the house. Because of the cold (colder now than most of the winter, actually), the guys probably won't actually resume work until April, but for now, they'll figure out the order of things and what will be needed in terms of materials. In the meantime, I've still got a pule of medical bills that need to be handled, which means we need sales and I need to get my subscription platform up and running (and you can still subscribe via PayPal even now). So here are the links: 

• Tonight's post elsewhere (Bluebird knows);
• A way to buy me coffee (which actually goes to She-Wolf's & my medical bills);
• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• Wings's site, for sales;
• Wayfair gift cards, to replenish all the furnishings that the RV has destroyed in one way or another.
• Partial registry #1, from Bed, Bath and Beyond. There are new kitchen-y things on it now, stuff that I didn't realize we'd need to replace (either because the RV ruined it or because we gave it away when we had to downsize).
• Partial registry #2, from Wayfair. There are some things left on both registries that I thought by now I might be able just to buy outright, but medical bills (mine and She-Wolf's both) have to come first.

Please check out the new platform, share the links, get your friends to participate. I've got a long road ahead of me, just in terms of diagnosis and, I hope, eventually treatment. Being able to pay off the medical bills will go a long way toward keeping me as healthy as possible in the meantime. Thanks, everybody, from both of us.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.