Saturday, September 14, 2019

Talk about your stubborn comebacks.

Photo copyright Aji, 2019; all rights reserved.

The Guatemalan sage has never been so lush, or so prolific, as this year. It's also never bloomed twice . . . until now. 

It's due to Coyote, of course; her little body is laid to rest next to it, and now the site is covered with a profusion of purple flowers. But there's something else at work, too. See the friable gray stalks at the very bottom of the photo? That's it all should look by now. Because, you know, they began blooming in May, got picked mostly clean by the bees and butterflies and hummingbirds, and would normally have been mostly gone by August, entirely gone by now. Instead, both plants flowered a second time, starting a couple of weeks ago, much to the great delight of the bees here.

Talk about your stubborn comebacks.

Yeah, I know. But I have to do the same, over and over and over again. It's frankly the only way we managed to get out of the toxic tin can, an utter refusal to give up, no matter what. More of the same now, in a different context. The good news is that, thanks to the house, I'm still alive to do it, and I would not have been had we not managed to get moved in nearly two years ago. The bad news is all the other dangers still lurking, both in the repairs needed to the house and to the ones hiding in our bodies (mine particularly; Wings's knees are terribly painful, but it's a bit different from worrying about heart and lungs and liver and thyroid, tumors and other issues still unidentified with any specificity).

I canceled the first of my September medical appointments yesterday, and in so doing, by definition canceled the follow-up. I'll try to reschedule maybe in October; maybe not, depending on the money situation. I have no choice, really but to keep the most expensive one, natch; there are factors that are cause for concern about my kidney function, and so I need to get those labs done at the end of the month. The next appointment, currently scheduled for the following day, is probably getting the ax, too. Yeah, I should keep it, but it's not like it's for an emergent issue; it's follow-up on all the many conditions I'm battling right now, from breathing to thyroid to pain and likely EDS, and that can always be rescheduled for November or December (yeah, she's booked about six weeks out, so . . . ::shrug::).

For those wondering about either the health issues, see here; with regard to the work being done, some of the details are here. We still have to get the plumber in to finish up, and I regard that as a bigger priority right now in practical terms, so whatever we take in sales-wise will have to go to that. This is all complicated by the fact that, for August, a record number/amount of my Patreon patrons' cards were declined, too, so that income is lower than usual (no, I don't know who and haven't checked; I'm not going to contact anyone who probably is already scrambling to juggle their own stuff, too).

Anyway. Back to the grind; so I need help to get all this done. Folks can help in several ways, and we really need the help now:
Some thank-yous are in order: first, to whomever bought the peppermint oil! Second, to o.w. for Chinook's training treats; she's handling the training like a champ. And to all the other folks who were unidentified on the package enclosures; to the folks who hit my Ko-fi/our PayPal; and to the sister who sent a check and whose address I put in a safe place for purposes of a thank-you card, and it's apparently such a safe place that I cannot find it because my brain is what it is these days). On the wishlist, now the cold is here at night, the flies are not quite so bad, but the fly traps are still a priority. The other top priorities are the dish drainer, because we're going to need to take care of some cabinet-top stuff when the guys are here next week, or whenever we get them back out here; and the candles, to deal with the residual mildew odor in the utility room, which I hope the plumber will be here to finish next week (the utility room work, not the mildew). But the costs on all of this are . . . killing us right now.

And as I said, sales are ideal, of course; one or two of Wings's bigger pieces would cover the whole shot for this round of work. Patreon subscriptions are good, too. Either way, it's a trade for value. But I'm already feeling panicked at what we thought would be our schedule being so suddenly and thoroughly upended, and we'll take it however it comes at this point. 

Please share everything, because I'm suddenly back behind the eight-ball on a whole additional front, and yeah, I'm scared about covering everything and surviving, too. Thanks.





All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

No comments:

Post a Comment