Not quite on schedule. Crucial wishlist adds, and a lot looming expense-wise. Sales needed now, and subscribers and shares, too.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

Sunset last night, except in the east-northeast. We have fog again this morning, although it's clearing off more rapidly than yesterday. We're also not quite back to our usual schedule yet, although hopefully today's featured work won't be posted as late as yesterday's. Wings has minor finishing work to do on it. Speaking of yesterday's, it's both unique and fabulous, and it's here. Go take a look. Today's will be something else entirely, and it's one I already covet, even unfinished. You'll know why as soon as you see it.

I added some new items to our Amazon wishlist yesterday. Two are for the kitchen; as the notation says, every autumn we set aside a little to stock up on staples in bulk: beans, rice, atole, steel-cut oats (the latter two being on of the few combinations that keeps Wings going for hours on end without his glucose dropping), flour, cornmeal. Right now, the bags are occupying the pantry floor and shelves, but I need to get them stored properly. One set of canisters is not a lot, but it's a start. The steam vac is for the rugs, because we have 6 months of winter here, plus 2-3 months of monsoon weather (and the rest of it is normally taken up with irrigation), and I want to keep the rugs in good shape for as many years as possible.

The other item is more expensive, but it's also the most urgently necessary. Last year, when I nearly died, we bought a modestly-priced walkie-talkie set so that Wings could check in on me and when he had to be out on the land or up in the backcountry; it didn't work, and we returned it. We have 25 acres here, and our phones don't work half the time (and no, it doesn't matter what provider we use; we've tried Verizon, T-Mobile, one other I forget, and now Metro PCS, over a period of about a decade and a half, and each is as crappy as the next). I've done the research, and this set is one of the best-rated, with extra-long battery life, and it's weatherproof, something necessary in a land of monsoonal cloudbursts, dust devils and mini-tornadoes, flash floods, blizzards that drop three feet of snow, and sub-zero temps. These are not toys, and they are not luxuries; with our health issues, being separated is taking our lives in our hands, and with no cell signal, things can go sideways very, very fast. In recent weeks, that signal has gotten worse; I think the current record for Wings trying unsuccessfully to reach me is 13 attempts, and that's with the phone on and at a full charge in right in my pocket at all times. There is no way right now that we can drop that kind of cash on a single item, so onto the wishlist it goes.

Speaking of cash, we need to bring in a lot more, especially now with winter here early and with the closure looming not long after the new year. So as I keep saying, I also have to spend today (EVERY day) on work that brings in actual scratch, sales or subscribers or otherwise. Ordinarily, the sales and commissions we get this time of year are what see us through six long hard months of winter (but that has not the been the case the last couple of years); on top of ordinary winter cost of living and now this construction mess, I have more tests upcoming soon on top of the tens of thousands of dollars' worth of medical debt already trying to drive me into an early grave. Time is short for the holidays, so if you have special orders, get them in to me now so he has time to create them for you. For now, though, I'm so far behind on this day (and on the week as a whole) that I'll never catch up, so most of the rest is cut-and-paste.

Most of my attention has to be focused on bringing in money, through sales or subscribers or any other means, because the bills don't pay themselves, either, and the heavy burden I'm carrying on that score is inhibiting my ability to heal in a not-insignificant way. Please share these routinely:

• My new Patreon, The Interstices (Writing Between Worlds) (and if you subscribe today you won't be billed until January 1st for December);
• 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).

Please share the links. We're now officially into holiday order season, because commissions take time, so if you're planning on holiday gifts, please keep Wings's work in mind. And given what we're up against, we won't turn away donations, either, because we simply can't afford it.

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.