It's been a hell of a weekend.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

That's what the sky looks like to the north right now. The peaks are getting some rain; us, not so much. Supposedly we'll have more than these few drops later this evening, and [again, supposedly] again every day through Friday.

We'll see.

It's been a hell of a weekend, today included. It's the one-year anniversary of the day we lost Miskwaki, and my heart has not really healed at all in that time. A couple of days ago, Wings sent me a photo he found on his phone of both of my boys together — Miskwaki and Ice — and it broke my heart all over again (we lost Ice, my mustang, in August of 2017, for those who don't know).

On top of that, a tragedy very close to home; the catastrophic fire burning a little way south of here; and yesterday, the hinges on our kitchen door (an exterior door) failed. We spent half of yesterday trying unsuccessfully to fix it, only to learn that the manufacturer 1) created proprietary hinges, and 2) stopped making them fewer than 6 years later, meaning that 3) there is nothing we can do to fix it except have the doorframe torn out and redone to match wholly different hinges. Planned obsolescence is a particularly insidious evil, and I'm madder than hell about it, especially since this is the kind of job we'l have to hire the guys to do, and we don't have the money for that. So we replaced the door, locked and blocked it, and have been using only the front door . . . and early this afternoon, as Wings was seated at the kitchen island eating, there was a godawful bang. These storms that never actually rain do whip up trickster winds, the spiraling kind, and one whipped against the door so hard that it broke it right out of the frame and it crashed onto the floor. 

It's a glass-panel door. 

It's not broken, so someone was watching out for us. But it did mean that we lost yet another hour to blocking it and nailing it in place (which means it will need to be refinished, too), and moving a cupboard in front of it to prevent a recurrence, given that the winds are still doing their thing. I have no idea when we'll be able to get it fixed. And to add insult to injury, as I was cleaning the back of the cupboard, I misjudged standing up, and slammed my head on the underside of the wall cabinet. No, I am NOT going to the ER. We don't have that kind of time, never mind money, and nobody's masking or mitigating in any way, which means I'd probably contract COVID there, which in turn would kill me, so what's the percentage in it? Less than none.

I have to bring in sales, and it just gets more urgent by the day, and I can't even get time to work on it. But we still have to keep pushing, because this is a society that doesn't allow for tragedy, or catastrophe, or destruction and death, even when it causes them all. There are bills to pay, expenses to cover, supplies to be stocked for winter, people to help, now his doorframe to be ripped out and redone and the door rehung, and an endless parade of other demands. All in our worst sales year in a long, long time.

But I've got to bring them in, and with a lot more consistency than over these past eight months. I posted Wings's two newest works the other evening, here. I already posted his newest cuff here the other day, and it's amazing; it's called Stars Float Down Like Butterflies, and as soon as you see it, you'll see why. Last week, I posted his two new pairs of earrings, here. There's plenty of other new work in the site, too. But we have to make up a LOT of ground financially over the next four months. A LOT. All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the sponges are unavailable, but the other two things I need that I can't get here are the Bar Keeper's Friend coffeemaker cleaner and descaler; we're entirely out of both [or Amazon cards, and I can order them myself]); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.