Mostly just gratitude.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

Beautiful day. Far too warm; snow's virtually gone. The only "clouds" in the sky are the contrails from far too many planes, either for this place, or for environmental considerations, but here we are.

It's a too-warm day like that one seven years ago today, when I almost died the first time. Still here. There's a lot bound up with the memories of that time, and some years, it's the fear that I remember most, but right now, it's mostly just gratitude.

Despite everything this world continues to throw at us, we're still here.

Good thing, too, 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]. Yes, it'll be warmer tonight than last night, but not by a lot, and there are six months of winter yet to come. 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, MYLAR BLANKETS. 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. First morning since Wednesday that I haven't had an episode like those that almost killed me 7 years ago today, unable to breathe from everything shutting off my airway [okay, well, a momentary one, but it passed]. Still, 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 another pair of earrings, these one of Wings's newest works and called "An Atmospheric Love," built around two phenomenal heart cabochons of natural American turquoise seemingly from two different sources, here. So today's complementary featured works also are built around heart cabs, two necklaces, a bracelet, and a ring:

• "A Love Ancient and Eternal," rare colla wood ringed with amber, carnelian, and a single aquamarine, with an extraordinary strand of hand-selected beads, here; 
• "Hearts Aflutter," talismanic hand-wrought butterfly necklace, Rosarita [gold slag] and incredible natural American turquoise cabs, with sterling, turquoise, and fire agate hand-selected beads, here;
• "An Elemental Love," a vintage-style hook bracelet, sterling band sculpted freehand, perfect scarlet Rosarita [gold slag] heart, here; and
• "Love Spiral," a ring with an offset wrap band and a fabulous natural American turquoise focal, 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, as well as two of the pendants, one ultra-high-grade black-web Kingman and the other a fabulous azurite-in-malachite shield], 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.