A little friend.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

Out on the railing just a few minutes ago — a little friend who also loves the snow.

And it's been snowing nonstop since about 9PM last night. Somewhere around half a foot, give or take, on the ground, with possibly that much more to come, and then the deep freeze overnight. Actual temps will be in the minus-double-digits tonight, and it's supposed to get up only into the single digits above zero tomorrow. In other words, normal winter weather here . . . which we haven't had for five or six years now, at least.

I am, however, staying indoors except when absolutely necessary. A lot has changed for me, health-wise, in those intervening years, and I can't tolerate the exposure to cold the way I used to do. I'm also dealing with pain that's been off the charts in recent days, and a very bad sudden drop in blood glucose last night (no, I'm not diabetic; I've been hypoglycemic my whole life, but this is possibly a record for speed, and it seems to be a product of the lupus meds). I'm okay; Wings shoved glucose tabs at me until I could stand upright again, but it leaves a mark.

And there's rest of the pain, the contracture issue, the insomnia, the chest pain and breathing difficulties, and the worries about organ damage. Oh, and money. There's always that worry. And I have two expensive appointments coming up in the next five weeks. February is not starting off encouragingly. I need to find some cause for hope, and right now, there's none.

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 over the weekend (it 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, a little less now, 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 yesterday, here; Saturday 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 Bissell vac);
• 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.