Criminal recklessness.

Photo copyright Aji, 2020; all rights reserved.

We came home to that today. That was one of two completely separate sections of fence that were down, thanks probably to the same whirlwind that came through right after we left, hammering the truck as we were driving two miles down the highway.

Town is awful. It's not really a ghost town, except for the more artsy types of businesses, and whatever percentage of restaurants preferred to close rather than switch to take-out/delivery only. But most businesses are still open, and people are being appallingly reckless, both of their own lives and others'. Even at the pharmacies, not one single solitary person was masked; most weren't even gloved. None at the grocery store, or anywhere else. Not much in the way of social distancing by most of them, either. We both wen't into every single place masked and gloved, and yes, it was fucking hot and miserable in line at the grocery store, and yes, we kept them firmly in place until the groceries were loaded into the truck.

Here's the deal: I said that by the end of this week, NM would be seeing a BIG uptick. Yesterday was a record, with 24 new cases; today? FIFTY-FIVE. Two of them are here in Taos County. And Public Health released a study today that says that if the state continues to its current level of so-called "social distancing?" For the week from April 23rd through April 29th, we will see, state-wide, MORE THAN 16 DEATHS PER DAY. MORE THAN 500 DEATHS OVERALL, and that's only if we're very, very lucky. And this town is acting like it's nothing.

Criminal recklessness. 

I got my scrips. we got everything else done that we could possibly do. And I hope we do't pay for it because no one else feels at all responsible to anyone else, not even their own loved ones.

Beyond that, my primary source of stress right now is the bills. Sales are nonexistent. I just paid a monster electric bill, because apparently they lost a bill in the mail or some nonsense, and when we thought we were paying the February bill, we were paying January's past-due instead. Between February and March, courtesy of the need to run an electric heater for longer ours in his studio, I shelled out almost $500 in cash today just to get us into April. And with having made only three sales all year, I need to bring in about $4,500 to feel confident of getting through whatever's waiting for us with this pandemic. We've spent far more than we would ordinarily have done over the last six weeks getting ready to quarantine ourselves, because we saw what was coming even if the so-called "leadership" of this country still refuses to acknowledge reality. We also shot what is for us an extraordinary (I mean that word; by any measure, it was A LOT) amount of cash to various folks, mostly Indigenous and disabled, over the last few weeks, precisely because we could see what was coming, and most of them don't have the privilege we do of an isolated home with natural resources and hard experience to help keep us going.

Three sales are not going to keep us alive, and we still have taxes and other expenses to pay. Just to cover all of the outgo over recent weeks, I need to bring in $4,500 fast; I've got to make sure we can get through the rest of the year. So please share all of our links, because while we're all in isolation? Income is going to be next to nothing otherwise, and we can survive the isolation, but not the inability to feed the maw of all the bills. Also, I added some new items to the wishlist, so that breakfast is less boring, and because I'm going to have to return to sewing (supplies, mending, etc., and eventually maybe other stuff for local folks). Oh, and I also added candles back on, because we're going to have to cancel the plumber AGAIN, so there's no fixing the mildew problem until we can reschedule, which may be months out yet; the candles help deal with the smell. Why cancel? Because in his spare time, he was an instructor at the Ski Valley. You know, where a person who should never have been traveling by then in the first place went and exposed everyone. There are some other new items on there, too, things that have always been sort of on my mental wishlist but I cold never justify the indulgence (waffle iron, bread machine). Now they're much less indulgent, given that we're going to be here for a very long while, and bread would be nice occasionally (and so would waffles).

Speaking of sewing, a huge thank-you to whomever took the sewing machine off the wishlist the other night. I've started the process of keeping up my end of the bargain, and the elastic bands and filter layers for making medical masks are already ordered and on the way. Here I can think of at least four facilities that can use them: IHS; our own doctor's office, which is a certified community health care center (and, last I knew, nearly out), the local urgent care center, and the local hospital. Thereafter, I'll use it for our mending and alterations and sewing for tradish purposes.

Meanwhile, I paid the last three bills for the month day before yesterday, and this week, I have to get cracking on our taxes, so there's been a lot more outlay, with a lot more yet to come. As I keep saying, we need sales, very badly. The links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

Please share everything. Thanks.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.