The freezing mark.

Photo copyright Aji, 2025; all rights reserved.

Colors are changing fast now. Even down here, the upper quarter of the big fire maple is mostly orange and red, and the cottonwoods a cross the highway have much more gold than yesterday. 

I didn't think to check the thermometer until about 8:00 this morning, and it was still only 38 then. I'm guessing it got down very near freezing, if not actually at the freezing mark. It was cold enough downstairs to need a fire this morning.

And our local shelter is closed until next Monday night [a staff member died over the weekend]. But that's going to make it that much harder for unhoused/unsheltered folks over the next several nights.

Everything's terrible. The news is just a constant firehose of deliberate, gleeful evil. We are doing as well as can be expected given our pain levels and everything else, but the harm to the most vulnerable now is . . . I'm so tired, just from the constant physical strain on my body, but the constant rage at what this country and its politicians continue to wreak is becoming unmanageable. It's hard to believe that we're at the mercy of such colossal, willful stupidity and evil, but here we are, and the GOP will never change, but the Dems have no excuse. Fucking cowards. People are dying, and more will die, and they all have blood on their hands. [I think the Tylenol labeling was the thing that broke it for me, finally. Don't expect me not to swear a blue streak, because I'm never going to be "respectable" about evil.]

And my disease progression is making it impossible to get even the most basic stuff done, and I can't afford that right now, even less than usual. The holiday creative season effectively begins on October first, and we will both be running 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, until the end of the year. He also has to finish the last half-dozen or so commissions that are in the works before he can turn his attention to cranking out holiday inventory in any real way. And we need to bring in sales now, both to cover his work building new inventory and simply to meet all the costs of this stupidly expensive year [on top of last year being the same]. If we could just continue to make regular weekly sales, we'd be fine . . . but we need to make those sales now, and so far, that's not happening. It's been two weeks since our last sale, and that's not going to cut it. There's a lot of gorgeous new work up, but I've got to sell it for it to make any difference. This kind of stress is also not helping my health. I need that to change now, and fast. And to that end, links are here [with the LaminaSaver back on the wishlist, because Miika goes through it at a rapid clip]:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [priority at the moment is more of the LaminaSaver for Miika];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need this to be a better month than what we've had so far this year.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2025; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.