Hellsky.

Photo copyright Aji, 2020; all rights reserved.

Just in case you wondered what a hellsky looks like.

That was yesterday evening. It's been so unseasonably hot here, and we can't open the windows because the smoke is suffocating. At night, though, we've been opening the east windows in our bedroom, because we've been getting night winds from the east that push the smoke back until closer to dawn.

Until now. I couldn't sleep last night, and all of a sudden around 1, 1:30, I realized I was choking, and I could smell woodsmoke. Not the gentle fireplace kind; the raging forest fire kind. I had to shut ALL the windows, but by then, if course, it was too late for my asthma.

So I'm operating on no sleep again today, with a scratchy throat and itchy eyes and a raging headache, in part from the smoke itself and in part because a few hours after the smoke filtered in, my left shoulder, spine, and neck all subluxed themselves badly. And the little winter bird from yesterday? Wings found it dead this morning; something larger had broken its neck and dropped it beneath the arbor.

All the omens feel terrible now.  

The last two weeks have been hideously expensive, and there will be an even bigger expense to come next week in the form of a tow and car repairs, probably at least another $700. On top of about $600 already out the door this week and medical and bureaucracy and some badly needed supplies. Which means I need to bring in about $1,300 in sales to cover all of this week's expenses and next's. Except, you know, I forgot about the pups' appointment this week for initial shots, so figure $1,500 to cover everything, car repairs and tow and community aid for folks in need and medical care and bureaucratic bullshit and puppy vaxes. Selling one of the big new cuffs would do it. [Speaking of the pups, they have done the job; Cricket is happy now in his new role as big brother. Instead of crying every night, he's out patrolling.]

And that's also why the rest is mostly, but not entirely, cut-and-paste. Scroll down, though, because there's a link to six fabulous new works. As I said, this is a terrible week, one completely overloaded every single day. I'm know I'm behind with lots of folks, and I promise I'll get back to you, but right now, I've barely had time to breathe, and I'm playing catch-up the rest of today and probably the weekend. Things are terrible on other fronts, too: a forecast of two weeks' worth of rain jettisoned for more high heat and drought; a new round of local deaths, a percentage of which no doubt are COVID-19 deaths, but the state is steadfastly not reporting them. In Tuesday night's update to the local paper, there were four brand new obituaries for people from Wings's various circles (community, acquaintances, etc.), people of wildly disparate demographics and backgrounds, and all too young to die. We're waiting to hear the identity of a fifth, a violent death that occurred last night. People are dying, literally. A lot more won't make it through the year. We have our first confirmed hantavirus case in the county, too, and it's not mere hantavirus but HPS: hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, in which it attacks the heart and is thus fatal more often than not, and in the adjacent county just west of us are the state's first two plague cases of the year, one of them already fatal (and the victim only 20 years old, too).

Meanwhile, our peoples need to survive. The land needs to survive. I'm not sure how the garden will make it — strike that; it's not even a question of how anymore, but simply if. I'm not sure how we make it, for that matter. One thing the high heat and drought managed for us, at least, was keeping the mosquitoes at bay for a while, but it's cooled off enough that they're back, and the grass has to get cut, no matter how much brown there is in it. We can't afford to risk West Nile here (and a lot of you know why we have deeply personal cause to fear it now). We're already flooded with tourists spiking our COVID-19 numbers locally, and categorically refusing to be remotely decent human beings, nothing more than the white supremacist colonizers they are. And in the middle of all this deliberate endangerment of our peoples, as I've said, we're dealing on the fly with the fallout. My monthly budget is blown; when elders need help (and they need it badly now), you give it, and that's what we've done twice last week already. On top of that, Wings picked up the mower for the fifty-billionth time last week, and that's another ~$300 or so down the tubes. I've made enough sales to cover most of that unexpected outlay, but now I've got to cover the looming $1,500. One big sale would do it, or a couple of smaller ones, so if you've had your eye on something, now would be a great time.

Speaking of which, so much work, and still I have to push to make sales no matter what else is going on. Wings has six new pieces just completed; I got them posted a few nights ago, here (the anticlastic cuff at the top is spoken for now, but the other five are still available). But he's also got a few new pieces in the works now, and other gorgeous newish work already posted. New piece just the other morning, here. Two brand new and purely phenomenal works from the other day, here. Lots of other new works, too, cuffs and earrings and one new necklace, plus more in the works and coming soon. So please continue to share the links, because we do still need to make regular, consistent sales to get through what's left of this terrible year. I've also added some new items to the wishlist, because, well, puppies, and the plumbing overhaul we can't afford to do because of how badly they screwed us, so those things are near-ish to the top; you'll have to scroll two or three times to see them all. The priorities are the first and foremost, the KT tape, the fly spray, and the cleaning products (you have to scroll down a bit to get to them, but they're all things to deal with this mineral/limescale problem courtesy of the plumbing issue). The links are here:

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

[Obviously, the wishlist is back in force. There are things I absolutely cannot get except through Amazon, and I can't add that stress onto all the others now.] Please share everything. Thanks.

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