Farther and farther behind.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

Wings's new bench pin that he made himself yesterday, larger and sturdier than his old one, with a new work in progress on it today.

As you can tell, he's actually catching up. I'm still falling farther and farther behind, even as my workload keeps piling up higher by the day. I've written lately about what lupus (that's in addition to inflammatory arthritis [possibly rheumatoid, but the specific form is really irrelevant at this point], chronic EBV post-viral syndrome, hypermobility, asthma and all the fallout from nearly dying twice a few years ago, and the at least three tumors throughout my body plus the lymph-channel obstruction in one breast). I am in a lot of constant pain, and the lupus part of this autoimmune complex is busy damaging the tendons and ligaments in my left leg and foot, and I'm busy trying to prevent contracture while simultaneously being unable to put much weight on that foot at all.

Then there's the chest pain and attendant breathing problems, the other body-wide pain, the insomnia it causes and the constant fatigue and brain fog, and everything else. And life doesn't let up.

As I said, a lot of these are newish concerns now, and they're adding to my already considerable stress. This is our most expensive month of the year (followed very closely by July, and that's not even counting April, which is tax month, in this). And to top it all off, Wings thought to check the propane tank yesterday (fires our hot water heater and oven/stove; it's a big tank, so we only need to refill every couple of years, usually, which means I forget to monitor it): We're in the red zone, which means we've got about a week before we need to get them out here to refill it. The problem with that is that locally, all forms of heating gas have skyrocketed, tripling in cost over last year. Literally tripled. And no, propane is NOT covered by LIHEAP. You'l have to ask the state pols which interests paid them off to make sure they didn't include it. But guess what heats most Indigenous homes (and lots of other poor rural ones)? Of course it does.

And there are still bills yet to pay to get us out of this month in one piece, never mind the rest of the year, so I have GOT to make some sales this week. I need help. I can't do this alone; hell, I can barely walk most of the time right now. But there are ten new pieces since last weekend: the new trio in his gemstone-bead series today, here; last night's all new vintage-style cuff, here; a new hook bracelet the other day, with a fabulous flame-red Rosarita heart, here; you can see the new gemstone beadwork set, the next in his Elementals series, here (and the last of the Winter series, this one Water, coming tomorrow, if all goes well, plus the two bracelets I've shown here the last couple of days); the really phenomenal big works from Saturday are here. Those other two new pieces I mentioned last Monday night are both up here and here. More hearts are in the works for Valentine's Day including another hook bracelet and a pair of earrings. And we urgently need to sell them all. Please share, and buy if you can.

Links are here, and there's new work up, with more to come this week:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are first and foremost, the other ladder and the elliptical);
• 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 twelve whole months of a new year, plus put aside enough for a new well when the ground thaws enough to drill in the spring. And 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, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.