So it's been a day.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

Once in a while, you get a lens flare that's actually beautiful. The weather, notsomuch. Fifty-two degrees today, thirty degrees too warm, and the snow is melting fast. Of course, it'll all freeze into something deadly overnight.

It's been a day. Not the good kind. I had SO many things that had to get done today, and I was actually lucky to get the one accomplished that I did, because it's been the Monday from hell. First, three brownouts, raising fears that we'd lose power altogether, especially since Indian Killer Power would only concede that they had "unidentified issues" that they were trying to fix. Then, Wings went to start the ATV, intending to use the snowplow on it to level out the ice so it's safer for us to walk on it.

Nope. Dead. Spent the day charging the [newish] battery, and it's still dead. It hasn't even been truly cold, and he's been starting it every couple of days. 

then the smoke/CO2 detector picked this morning to die. As in, ear-piercing shriek every two minutes to let know. We finally found new batteries. It wasn't the batteries. Finally tracked down the problem to "the sensors have failed," which means it's trash now. but the fucking thing would NOT stop beeping at 120 decibels, and even earplugs wouldn't block it.

On top of absolutely crippling pain today, everywhere? You think I wasn't ready to scream?

Fortunately, our electrician agreed to come out and fix it. He got here, I don't know, around 3 PM? Late, so I've been dealing with this shit all day, but he replaced it. Don't ever get a Nest-brand detector.

Oh, and I've been trying to refill scrips for both of us today, because it's Xmas week and we don't need to be without them by the weekend, when the pharmacy is now closed, but their online refill system refused to submit my refill requests. Why? Because it's closed today, too. Not because it's a regular closure, but because these corporations treat their people so badly that they can't keep staff, and if one person calls in sick, it's all over. 

The only thing I got done today was packaging an order for shipment, and Wings took it in to the post office so I wouldn't have to stand in a long line for half an hour in absolute agony.

So it's been a day. And through it all, I still have to make sales, of course. 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. My Patreon for the month is still down ~$250 at the moment [that's how much it was short on the December 1st payout for subscriptions for the month of November, and so far, all of those still haven't been paid]. My guess is that those won't materialize later in the month; that will be the penalty [or one of them anyway] for taking a vocal stand about the genocide being perpetrated against Palestine and its people now. 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.

And aside from all of that, I also need to bring in at least $6K in sales between now and year's end to cover tax prepayments, and we haven't hit the $1K mark on that yet. Normally, I would've been paying them 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 LAST NIGHT, plus two new ones a couple of nights ago, and another one tonight if I have enough time]. 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.