Few and fragile.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

First berries, few and fragile. The patch is fairly heavy with green, but whether that translates into actual fruiting is still an open question with what climate and weather are doing these days.

Of course, they're not all that's fragile now. I'm not sleeping, because of the pain. The other night, the lymph nodes under my left arm began to swell, in an apparent mirror image of what happened on the right side beginning on May 2nd. It looks as though whatever else is happening, lupus or something else, I’ll likely be getting the same pain and the same disfiguring effects on the left side now as I’ve been dealing with on my right these last 2.5 months. And today, my entire system crashed. Badly.

As I said yesterday, in the past, I’ve largely been able to reassure myself that the worst of it is only temporary, just a flare, and that I’ll be back to what passes for normal for me in a matter of days, weeks, or at least months. The way this has worsened, with no relief, means that I now have to worry that this is not a flare, but a new progression in my disease. Is this the best I can hope for now? It’s not going to get any better, only worse? I have to be prepared to get my head around that, and so far, it’s not working. But today was a whole other level. I got my errands and work out of the way this morning, and now I can barely stand.

Not being able to bring in any income is making it all worse.

This is our second-most-costly month of the year, thanks to certain biannual expenses, and every year, I think this will be the year that I get ahead of it, and every year, I get crushed instead. This time, it was all these medical expenses that did it. But the upshot is that I have to find ~$3,500 before the month is out, ~$1,500 of it by the first of the week, and I'm nowhere on it. My Patreon is down by 3 figures these days, and I don't have the health to do it daily anymore. And now we might finally know why; labs indicate lupus as a likely culprit. You can read the details of that here. I need help, though. The fatigue alone is kicking my ass, and I don't have time for it, because the bills won't wait.

So I have got to bring in sales to cover anything, and push has come to shove now. I needed to pay this $1,500-ish on Monday. It's overdue now. There's another ~$2K lurking that has to be paid the following week. I also can't do it alone, so please share our links. There's a lot of work in progress right now, and new work, too. [Yes, the new cuff is spoken for, but that won't pay out yet for a few days because of logistical issues, and I need to bring the $1,500 in well before then.] Anyway, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are all the mosquito-prevention items, especially the portables and the patio-surface ones, because Wings can take them around the land with his as he works);
• 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 lots of fabulous new work, so please share all of 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.