Hawks and vultures. Patreon subscribers, sales, and shares all very much needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

From yesterday evening. they spend a lot of time hunting here, but also a lot of time just visiting. After the twister hit, when we were out trying to clean up the wreckage, the female emerged from the nest for the first real time in days to join her man, circling and calling and chattering overhead while we worked. They stayed with us the whole time, as though keeping us company in the aftermath of something frankly scary.

Today was a loss for getting anything substantive done, for me, at least. The one thing we did accomplish was getting some of my O2 supplies to a friend in far more desperate need than I; she's literally fighting for her life in a pitched battle with cancer (yes, it's very bad), and her breathing has been affected since her surgery a week or two ago. I have the concentrator, at least (and after 6 months of this, I can pretty much tell by feel when I need to hope back on it), so we gave her all my canisters and liquid O2 and my meter, since she had no way to measure it at home. It is a terrible thing, in this country, to fall gravely, acutely ill and have no resources. Savagery as policy.

Tomorrow, the plumber comes out, and we have to deal with this septic system problem. And I have to be careful, because I can no longer allow myself to get upset about things; it now has real physical repercussions for me, in real time and long-lasting, and so anger is not an option. Which means that I have to hope that they do the right thing and that I don't have to make a big deal out of this. In the meantime, I still have to deal with the damned medical vultures, and it's getting harder and harder to cope with these people, and it will all start up again tomorrow. Given everything else I'll need to deal with tomorrow, too, I have no idea whether I'll get to a post here or not, so I'm tossing it up here tonight.

So. Sales, and subscribers, and shares. We needs 'em. Speaking of which, with regard to my Patreon page: I've set my initial monthly goal at $1,000, which will let me pay off our medical bills in just three years, imagine that (yeah, that's sarcasm, but I don't have any other options but this one). That's not $1,000 in the payout, incidentally; probably more like $900, so that means getting it up to somewhere over $1,100 to cover the fees even at this level. And speaking of that, the fourth in my current series on my Patreon (this one, for subscribers only), which can be found here. Subscribe at the $25/month level or higher, and you'll be able to read the whole series, plus a whole lot more to come. There are also three posts up in the "memoir" category, which is the most expensive, partly because it is the most costly to me emotionally to write (when I said "close to the bone," I meant it). These are from a previous series, and I don't actually expect that anyone will subscribe to read them, but it gets it out of my system at least temporarily. There will be a lot more in that category in the coming months. 

Thank you, once again, to the folks who have believed in me sufficiently to subscribe already, including my two new subscribers, all of whom collectively have gotten me almost to the 70% mark. I do need to make it the rest of the way, however, so I am asking folks outright, please: Share the link, and subscribe if you can. Pledges made now through May 31st will not bill until June 1st. But since I have $4K worth of vultures breathing down my neck right now (okay, so it's really more like $24K, and they're getting nasty about it, and yes, this IS the "discounted rate"), I really need to be able to meet this goal and pay off as much as possible as fast as possible. So here are all the links, and the rest is cut-and-paste; 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 half-feral puppies;
• 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).

I have more writing, more editing, and more general work to do, as well as labor of a more physical sort, so I need to get to it. 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.