Is the cold part really necessary?

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

First pear blossoms yesterday. First leaves on the red willows this morning. All of it just in time to freeze: a supposed "one-hundred-percent chance" of rain this morning (and the wind is freezing cold already). turning to snow overnight into tomorrow. It won't be much; just flurries. But is the cold part really necessary now?

Meanwhile, I'm still mired in it. I got no sleep at all Saturday night, and by last night, I was so fried I couldn't make sense of the columns of numbers, to that happens today instead.  I'm hoping to have it done tomorrow and turned over to the preparer by Wednesday, because I have to turn my attention to making enough sales to pay for it all, including the four figures that will be the Q1 '21 taxes. I am exhausted, and scared, and I need to cover all this somehow, because in a few days, we have to write out two very big checks to the tax man.

I also have to come up with enough to cover the plumbing, and other repairs over the next two weeks. It's complicated by the fact that every week brings another round of folks in need, and this week, we had to help out an older couple like us who are facing even harder times. I can't ever get ahead of the expenses, because there's just too much need out there and we can't lose people to it. We've all lost enough to the last sixteen months already.

But there's also a bunch of other stuff for the year to come, including his hearing aids, for obvious reasons. We still have to get hold of Pojoaque Pueblo's bison program to see how much it will cost to buy a share of a buffalo. Early research suggests around ~$2K, so we may need to crowdfund that. The thing about it is that it won't feed only us; it'll get shared with other folks. And then there's the well issue. No word on the grant funding, which I expect will be the case for months yet, and I also fully expect it to be denied, so, that will mean funding it ourselves, too, but it's clearly not optional anymore. I'm going to need to set up PayPal pools to fund all of these things if we can't make a whole bunch of sales now. It's endless, and I am so tired just thinking about it. 

We need sales. Sales, sales, SALES.

SALES. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS RIGHT NOW, AND I CANNOT GET ANY TIME TO MAKE SALES.

The last couple of years have required us to dig deep and ante up to help others at a level we've never done before. This year? The first month and a half of 2021? Had already buried that, and we're a whole lot more "mutual aid" beyond that point now. People are suffering. And I'm going to have to do some fundraising for a couple of other folks on here in the days and weeks to come. I just have to get the taxes off my plate first (and deal with the big checks we'll have to write, for the rest of '20 and 1st quarter of '21). If we had money, we'd just give it to these folks outright, but the kind they need is way beyond anything we'll ever be able to do, hence the need to help with fundraising.

But as I said about that being why we do what we do, especially now in these days of pandemic, it's become abundantly clear that too often, there IS NO tomorrow, and the only chance you might have to help someone stay alive is TODAY. Things are bad locally; no economy, nothing. We have lost SO much to 2020 (and already in 2021 including a distant relative-by-marriage we learned of just the other day, a brilliant Native artist whose death has hit Wings hard), so very, very many people, and the gifts and the talents and the knowledge and the wisdom they carried too often lost with them. People have needed so much more help than we could give them, but we did as much as we could, even when it put us in a bind, and we will need to do much more of that this year. People continue to need help, and we give it, but we're up well over $2 grand in just one week in February, and a whole lot more both before and since. 

I've got to find it again somewhere. Part of my work involves me reorganizing the Web site and then promoting the hell out of everything again. That's on top of all the other work I need to do around here, and I have been mostly useless, largely due to the recent flurry of episodes with my health. For every episode, it takes me multiple days to recover, all while hoping that another one doesn't set me back even further. That's not good. Too many people need help, and the government remains determined to see us die. There's work to do. This is why I've had to stop doing some things; there are just not enough hours in the day anymore, and I've got to make it all of this up somewhere. So:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are LaminaSaver for Miika & metal/glass/dishwasher cleaners);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And if you've been contemplating a purchase? This would be a very, very good time to do it; I've got to make up this staggering outlay somehow. There's even new work, a fabulous piece here, plus here and here and now here, among other new pieces from a few weeks ago, too, so please watch for them and share the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.