First light.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

The full Little Spirit Moon, first light.

Today was Day 2 of the plumbing nonsense, and we are both exhausted, but there's ignoring that winter here? Moments of awe all around us.

The good news is that the septic guys were able to handle it temporarily. The not-so-good news is that the apparent problem means that we will have to check it every few days, and have them out to pump it every 2-4 weeks. For, you know, the next five months.

That's because of the bad news.

The bad news is that the problem appears to be between tank and leach field. It could mean an exploratory dig, finding a blocked pipe [from subsidence, etc.], and replacing it. Apparently far more likely it means re-digging the whole damn leach field. We'll be looking at at least four figures' worth of cost, maybe five, and this will be right after taxes are due, and I can't even think about it right now. The intermediate costs will be more than enough to contemplate.

Why five months? Because the ground is frozen. Not like other years, but not suitable for this kind of digging before April, maybe even May.

Anyway, it's fixed for the moment, and we know what to do in the short term. Expensive, yes, but far better than the last two mornings.

But my relaxing final week of the year has gone up in a puff of smoke, or, more accurately, washed away in a flood of standing water.

So there's no respite even now from the need to chase sales, either. It's been such a terrible year, in that regard but also in so many others, and there are . . . what? seven days left in which to make up this horrible sales deficit? We've had a half-dozen now since T-Day, but we'll need to sell a lot more between now and year's end, obviously, and since there are exactly five of those days left, I'm guessing we won't come anywhere close. Of course, we haven't brought in anywhere nearly enough sales all year across the board, even before recent developments that require a moral stand of us. It's grim.

Normally, I would've been pre-paying taxes quarterly, but not this year; we haven't had enough sales to do that, and I'm behind on everything else, too, all while my illness worsens seemingly by the day. Until those prepayments are off my desk, I can't relax, can't do anything other than push to get them covered. I really need help. As always, all the links are listed below, and sales are the most important:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities now are Wings's Flex-Tape, and especially the vacuum, because mine has died a complete and ignominious death, and if I don't vacuum every single day, the dog hair takes over completely); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and there will be much more in the days to come [EIGHT NEW PIECES a few nights ago [one sold], plus two new ones a couple of nights before that]. The way this year has gone, things will still be grim for a good while and the holidays are already 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.