A dirty sky (and dirty unbreathable air to go with it). Much gratitude to my first patrons. Patreon and other link shares and sales needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

The sun was just a blank hole in a dirty sky. That was a couple of hours ago, after a day that turned gray, then yellow, then tan, and now is something along the lines of all three combined. It was educational for me, and not in a good way: I'm back on the O2 right now, trying to breathe, because the mix of dust from high winds with gusts exceeding 50 mph and the smoke from four fires on the west side of the state, one south of Albuquerque, and one in the the state's southwestern quadrant are all HERE, RIGHT HERE, and you can barely see the mountains, much less breathe the air. I thought it was bad the last couple of years; now that my breathing is so compromised, I'm going to need to stay indoors as much as possible during wildfire season.

We got one really big thing accomplished today — only an initial step, but nothing else happens without that, and it was driving me crazy, and now it's handled. About three big things yesterday, and a lot more over the next week or so. It did not, unfortunately, leave me time for writing, so at the moment, I have nothing new uploaded, but that will change tomorrow.

For now, the big thing is the new Patreon, which is here. I don't even have the words to express my gratitude to my first six patrons/subscribers: In less than one day, y'all have put me one-quarter of the way to my initial goal, and I couldn't be more grateful to you. It's not just the progress toward the goal, either; it's the fact that, on the very first day I launched the page, you folks stepped up and let me know you believed in me. That's more valuable than any amount of money (but the pledges are what will pay the medical bills). So thank you, thank you all, from the bottom of my heart. 

Speaking of medical bills, I've got $3,500 breathing down my neck right now. I've got another $20-some thousand after that, but the $3,500 represents the ones dunning me most intensely right now. Forget about the next round of upcoming tests; I have no clue how much and can't worry about it now. So here are all the links; please share them:

• My new Patreon, The Interstices (Writing Between Worlds);
• Wings's site, for sales;
• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• A way to buy me coffee (which actually goes to all of our medical bills, which continue to mount; another almost $400 for Wings this week);
• Amazon wishlist, which mostly consists of supplies for She-Wolf;
• 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.

I may yet have something new posted over there tonight; it all depends on how efficient I am at getting everything done tonight (and how well I manage on the three hours' sleep I got between three-thirty and six-thirty this morning). A lot of chest pain and difficulty breathing tonight, which makes me very slow at getting stuff done, so the Patreon may not be updated until tomorrow, but I'll try. Much gratitude to all of you, and please continue to share the links.

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.