As always, there's work to do.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

That was this afternoon. Plenty of sun and plenty of clouds, both simultaneously; freezing fog, too, and that stuff is still clinging stubbornly to the peaks. But the combination has made for a beautiful day, if a cold one. Even so, the sun was so bright that it took care of the vast majority of the snow, which just goes to show how powerful it is even in sub-freezing temperatures.

Yesterday's errands disruption has absolutely destroyed me physically right now. So much pain, so much internal muscle fatigue, and not a single thing I can do about it. Nor, it seems, about the breathing issues, either [and yes, that anniversary is tomorrow]. But there's no time to dwell on any of it.

Because as always, there's work to do. A lot of it. More than ever, because no one in authority or control is going to do it; that much is evident from this week's disastrous [but entirely predictable] election results, and the utter craven cowardice of the Dems]. The cold tonight is going to very bitter, bone-deep, and too many people don't have housing or shelter. One of the members of our new mutual-aid group has her own outreach effort aimed at unhoused local folks [their numbers growing literally by the day] with pets who need to survive the winter.  Here's that group's Amazon wishlist; go do some good in a world that's otherwise shit by buying some of the items on it that will keep our most vulnerable, people and animals both, alive for another winter. WHAT THEY NEED MOST:  SOCKS, SLEEPING BAG SETS, THE PUP TENTS. The most expensive item is 10 sleeping bags for $136; the pup tents are $27 each, and folks NEED those in this weather. The ground becomes pure ice.  The address it goes to will take care of it, so go buy some things for folks who have been less lucky this year; there's stuff at every price point.

And of course, there's more than enough that I need to get done around here. I'm already putting in 12- to 16-hour days every day, 7 days a week. Three mornings straight now with episodes like those that almost killed me 7 years ago this month, unable to breathe from everything shutting off my airway. No, I don't know why. Today was chemo day; we'll see if anything changes tomorrow morning. I'm seriously disliking this return of these episodes, though, even when they're of short duration like today. Feeling like you're dying is a terrifying thing.

But the work won't wait, and for us, being able to help anyone else starts with us making sales, of course. And as I also said, I'm also redoing what I highlight here. I'm just going to highlight a few items here each day. Today's feature is a pair of earrings from Wings's gemstone-bead signature series that looks like pure fire on a very cold day. Today, it's two works from the same group of gemstone bead collections [in this case, necklaces and coil bracelets, respectively] that were not created together, but match the earrings and other virtually perfectly. First, the necklace; then, the coil:

• "Snowfire," which we got a little of tonight, and a personal favorite, all flame reds and ice, here; and
• "Firewheel Prairie," from late spring, but that sunset we just had gave it back to us now, if with golden winter grasses rather than flowers, here.

There's more on the way very soon; he's got something like four more cuffs, a couple of pendants, several new pairs of earrings [a long, elegant ribbon turquoise pair possibly as early as tomorrow], and eventually all the new coils he'll need for holiday inventory. And I need to sell them all, because I still need to make sales weekly for us to catch up on the year and cover all the stuff still in the pipeline that needs covering [roof next year, more medical, etc.]. So: GO BUY! Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (Priority is the liquid soaps and Amazon cards, probably most useful at this point); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim year, this one already far worse than the last, we really need to get what's left of 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.