A solitary clover. Not much else, either, between heat and haze and hazing by medical creditors. Subscribers. sales, and shares all needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

From a couple of days ago: the one and only clover I've seen thus far this year. Normally, they're everywhere by now, but the drought and now the heat are affecting everything adversely. The dandelions showed up a month early and have mostly now vanished, too.

As of this morning, the Ute Park Fire reportedly had not grown beyond yesterday's 36,800 acres, and containment is being reported at 35%. More worrisome to us is an offhand reference buried in today's report about the need for fairly extreme efforts to fight the fire on its western line to keep it from spreading west. In other words, toward us. Now, if I'm understanding the area they mean correctly, it's craggy canyon-like slopes and cliff faces, fire burning deep in the mountains that would have to surmount said mountains (or spread out around them) to make it this far. Unfortunately, with temps in the nineties and winds routinely high in the afternoons, that's not 100% out of the realm of possibility. Neither of us thinks things will go south (or, rather, west), but we do have to be aware of that one fractional possibility.

No time for much of anything today; everything taken up with errands and tasks and surviving the heat and the haze and my screwed up cardiorespiratory system. I mostly shove down, hard, the knowledge that there is that possibility that any given day could be my last, but it's there all the time nonetheless. That makes this a point in my life where I'm disinclined to involve myself in much that takes away from our life here together, or to expend much energy beyond what's absolutely necessary on anything but us.

Unfortunately, the bills are absolutely necessary. 

As I've said, the calls and letters are endless, and I need to bring in enough to make it stop. The stress is very literally killing me. As I've also said, I really need to double my Patreon subscriptions (dollar-wise) to make even a little of that happen, so I've reset the goal accordingly. If I could get enough new people to subscribe to take the monthly total up to, say, $1,600, I'd be thrilled right now. Sales would help, too; in addition to the new barrettes, of the three new pairs of earrings I posted here yesterday, two are left, the lapis and the rose quartz. The ring I posted yesterday is still available, although the pendant has found its home. There'll be more new work in the coming days; Wings has a bunch of different projects in rotation on his workbench right now. Also, the Patreon? If you pledge today, you're not billed for June until July 1st. As promised, last night I posted something new under the "Bridges" (Causes) section, here. It's very important; it's very close to my heart; and $10 a month gets you access to these 1,800+ words on it, plus all the other posts in this category to come as we get into the general campaign season (along with other seasons that provide opportunities to help). Tonight's is mostly pictorial, and accessible to everyone. Here are the links; please do keep sharing them:

• My new Patreon, The Interstices (Writing Between Worlds);
• Wings's site, for sales, with new items posted;
• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• A way to buy me coffee (which actually goes to all of our medical bills, which continue to mount);
• Amazon wishlist, which mostly consists of animal and household stuff;
• 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).

As always, I have more writing, more editing, and more general work to do, and I have to get back on it. Thank you to everyone. I know I owe replies to a bunch of you, and other stuff, too. Also, my e-mail has apparently been hosed again by these constant intermittent outages, so if you haven't heard back over the last week, either resend or get via the Contact form or social-media DMs. I'm going to be late with everything, because just breathing is taking up so much time and effort these days that it puts me even more behind than I already am. I'm not really sleeping, and these rapid-fire weather changes are hell on my pain levels, to say nothing of what they, the pollen, and the smoke are doing to my breathing now. I'm hoping to have some fairly substantial pieces up on my Patreon over the weekend, as well as a few new items by Wings on offer.

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