Aced it. Too much pain and fatigue for anything else. Sales/subscribers/shares all badly needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

Welp, Miika aced her first vet visit. As spooky as she is, and as bull-headed, too, we thought she'd give us a hard time, but she seemed to sense that this was all for her well-being. She winced a little when the needle went in for the West Nile vax, and she got a little tetchy over her front feet being lifted and held, but that was it. 

She's sound. Anywhere from 7-9 years old, teeth in pretty good shape, no floating until next spring, barring any drastic changes. She's pigeon-toed, which we knew, and it's made worse by the complete and utter lack of anything resembling hoof care, but we'll start correcting that as much as is physically possible, slowly, over time. Wings is skilled farrier, and we know what to do to work on her alignment. Wide heel base and healthy overall in that regard, at least. Some swelling her and there, likely mostly to do with said lack of hoof care her whole life. Nothing likely to affect her fundamental soundness — at most, she'll be used for periodic pleasure riding and that's a long, long way off yet, given that she's never been even greenbroke — but something to watch and correct for to the extent possible. Vet really likes her, thinks she's "a good investment," but more than that, just likes her, her eyes, her demeanor, her level of chill. She was a very ,very good girl today. Miskwaki was good, too; since he was due for his annual two weeks from now, we had her go ahead and do his blood draw today (after losing Ice out of the blue a year ago, we had labs done on Miskwaki and Shade to try to catch anything early, although, as we saw with Shade, even that isn't always going to do it).

Other stuff, usual and otherwise, and I'm somewhere past exhausted and into "nonfunctional" now. I feel like I do when I have a mono flare — no energy whatsoever, and no amount of sleep fixes it. This year has done a number on me physically, and nothing I do seems to get me caught up again. If this is my new normal, I don't know how I get anything done. Neither the pain nor the fatigue will let go even the littlest bit, and I don't know where to go from here. The rest is cut-and-paste because I truly don't have the energy for anything more. We need sales, I need subscribers, we need to bring in some scratch badly. Here are the links and a request to share 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).

I had said that I'd really like to raise another $500 in subscriptions before July is out, just to have a little more to throw to the medical wolves that are constantly at my throat. That never ends, either, and the stress is not helping with the cardio stuff. It's bad; I'm not going to go into detail just how bad, but it's compromising my health even more than what it's been. Now, we've got a lot more that needs to be done, too, and I'm damned if I know how. The truck was more than enough to throw a wrench in the works (and that's still unfixed, for the most part, given that just the one part is more than $1,200, so . . . ), but this thing with Shade? Out of left field. And once you're in it, you have to keep going; there's no way out but forward, whatever the result. So please, please share the links. Thanks to everyone for the prayers and kind words and other help for Shade. I know she was better off for it, and I know she appreciated that. Miskwaki, too, and now his new girl, who never knew how good life could be until now.

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.