So that was fun.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

After one, they said.  It took them until 3:30 to get here, and I have no idea whether they’ll have it fixed today. Add to that that it’s bitterly cold, wind straight out of the north that cuts straight to the bone, and it had already been a day by 10:30 this morning for multiple reasons, and I’m ready to tear my hair out. And we’re on day three of no ability for me to do any of my work, because everything is online. [And as you can see, I wrote this before they got it fixed at the end of the day.]

Everything was frozen this morning, and it didn't get appreciably better all day (see north wind, above). Wings had to go dig out the chicken and dog water bowls with electrical elements, and install the element in the horses' water trough. It's night now, and the wind's still howling out there.

Wings had a follow-up with the dentist, an early-morning appointment, and those are hard on both of us given everything that needs to be done around here in the first hours of the day. Anyway, it won dup being much shorter than expected, because they had to make bite adjustments and that subsequently required taking new impressions for the next step, which will be . . . who knows? Oh, and the dentist informed us in an aside of the ::cough::mutter under your breath::cough:: variety that she was “over COVID.” So I grilled her, and she said it was “no big deal,” and I said, “but that’s because you’re vaccinated, right?” And she said “yes” (she’d told us months ago that she’d been vaccinated), but . . . diabetic elder having invasive procedures done in his mouth, and “over COVID ::shrug::.” 

So that was fun.

Yeah, no, it wasn’t.

I'm mad as hell, and there's not a goddamned thing I can do about it.

Meanwhile, this is our busiest season of the year; the holiday sales season starts roughly October 1st. So what this will mean is that I’ll have been put even further behind, and the need for sales will be more urgent than ever. We're $300 of the way toward the firewood, which means we can order one load this week. I still need to raise another $500 to order the rest. And then I need to raise more than a grand (probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,400 before it's all done) for my eye appointment, new lenses, new glasses, etc., etc. And that's getting increasingly urgent, because I'm not supposed to be on the lupus meds this long without getting them checked, even though I'm not having any symptoms. But I can't make the appointment until I know I can pay for all of it at once, and since it's out of town and the appointments themselves are expensive, I can't afford to break it up into two when I need both covered equally badly.

So here we go again with the endless chasing of sales to make everything meet where it needs to. And I need to bring in those sales. Desperately. They're already way, way down for the year because the colonial governments' pandemic mismanagement has trashed the economy. Also? Time is short, a lot shorter than you realize. For folks who are planning on Christmas shopping with us, you will need to order early this year, because thanks to DeJoy's damage, we can't guarantee shipping times.

Also, if you're planning on commissioning gifts for the holidays, DO IT NOW. We're dealing with the same supply-chain issues as everyone else, and at some point soon, Wings is going to have to get silver and stones to produce holiday inventory, and I'm hearing that the price is already spiking on the metals. More to the point of what customers care about, we also can't guarantee shipping times this year, because see above. But I've posted a ton of Wings's new work lately, and there will be more in the days and weeks to come. If I could sell one of the big works, like one of the belts, maybe I could get us on the drill list for the well that is the only thing that's going to keep this land alive. But I've got way too much to do and too few hours and other resources to do it. 

Anyway, I have GOT to make some sales, so links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are first and foremost, the ladders, because see above, and coffee coffee coffee, which we're finding it harder and harder to get locally);
• 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 cover all this staggering outlay somehow and get us through what's left of the year. And right now? I have no way to do it.  But 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.