I'd like to be able to breathe.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

The sun is back. So is the haze.

Actually, the haze is moving out now, because the rising winds have changed direction. New cloud cover, too, after a bizarrely orange, utterly cloudless sky on all sides this morning. no rain, though, and at this point, it seems unlikely.

None of the other kind of rain, either, and I don't know what I'm going to do. We paid the truck insurance today [can't get to appointments without it], chimney cleaning next week, ridiculously expensive medical testing for both of us at the end of next week, and the Tax Man is, of course, hounding us now. I need to make a big payment and get some of this off my chest, where it's sitting like a dead weight. But I can't do that without some major sales, and so far, no luck. 

I'd like to be able to breathe, but between the cottonwood pollen, the pall of wildfire smoke, the new health worries, and most immediately, the stress of no sales and too many things due within the next week, I can't. The weight on my chest just gets heavier by the day.

So. On top of the taxes, the chimney cleaning, the change in our Web hosting [a year already paid in advance, unless we wind up having to upgrade to more space, in which case it goes up by another $400], the need to replace my dying laptop, and all the other nonsense? Four figures' worth of medical bills coming up fast. The stress of all this is what's killing me now [and the insomnia, and the pain, and the fear of what this other thing might be]. I keep saying that I refuse to entertain the notion of the new pain and other symptoms being anything other than autoimmune complications, but that's getting harder to do know that I know that suppressing my immune system isn't stopping them. It's already abundantly clear that reverting to the proper chemo dose has accomplished exactly nothing on that front, and that's worrying in the extreme. It's clearly not muscle or bone. Yes, it could still be all lymph, but given the location, that in itself isn't exactly without worry, either. And the persistence of the pain and other issues . . . well. Meanwhile, the expenses won't wait.

So we've GOT to make sales now.  Desperately.  I need help; I can't do this alone.

I've put up a bunch of new work lately, including four new pairs of earrings posted on the NDN Silver site the other night [for the second time; the Web migration glitchiness wiped them out all the first time around several days ago]. There's more to come, including possibly a new cuff soon [he's not satisfied with it currently] and several additional new pairs of simple bezel-set gemstone earrings, in addition to the pairs from the other day. And as always, all the regular links are listed below. I've added some new items to the wish list; Wings needs the Flex-Tape and we need the filters for the air purifiers imminently. But as always, sales are by far the most important:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the FlexTape is also the priority now, so I'm told; otherwise, Amazon cards and the filters for the air purifiers); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim 2023, and with this year starting off MUCH worse (and given that we're already approaching the half-way mark), we really need to get 2024 onto a better footing, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.