Match met! Start of color coat. Sales/shares still badly needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved.

We have color!  Well, a little, anyway. Most of the day was spent on prep work, getting the color mixed, doing battle with Ace over it, and getting everything under way. They got the two most difficult parts done, though: the parapets. And it's exactly the color we wanted. That up there is essential, because that's where the water and snow really hit (as well as wind erosion). Apparently, thus far there is not a single crack in Sherm's intermediate coat (and cracks are normal as new construction settles), but this will help. Tomorrow, they expect to get mostly through, at least, with the rest of it. Then it's back to stairs and so forth.

Overnight, our match was also met, and I am so profoundly grateful that I don't have words. That'll pay half of this right there. With the grief I'm getting about "stress levels" from everybody right now, let me tell you, this was a HUGE amount of stress off me right this minute. If Friday hadn't happened, I'd be running around like a madwoman right now, but . . . it did, and whatever it turns out to be, it's not going to be good. I'll know more after Thursday, although likely not any concrete answers; al I'll know are which tests and being scheduled and (hopefully) when. It's driving me crazy not to be able to do anything right now, especially with so much to be done, but Wings is right, especially since every time I try to do more than walk from Point A to Point B, I really, really feel it. So yes, I'm still chasing sales to pay for all of this ("all of this" including not only the house, but my newly-incurred medical bills), and I can only do it from the couch, online, right now.

Because with winter literally around the corner, sales are going to be crucial to finishing this, but we won't turn away donations, either. To that end, I'll point you to the diary that our darling Yasu posted for us tonight; please go T&R and share.  I had told her no more, but they pulled rank on me while I was in the hospital, and while I hadn't intended it, I will not deny that we could use the help.  There's also a $1,200 match on offer (yes! $1,200!) and we're just shy of a third of the way there as of this posting). We need funds for materials, and for increasing the crew's hours (and yes, we had to add a man on the weatherization crew, and we'll have to add one for the plaster). As I said yesterday, I'm so relieved and happy to be alive  that I'm no longer sweating the details of the wedding very much (it's a sobering thing to have to sit, immobile, for a full 30-40 minutes knowing that you might not actually survive it). But there's that whole snow and ice and cold thing coming down the pike, and I suspect this will be the last really warm week we have. So sales matter right now, desperately. But the registries still matter, too. And as always, all of the registry items can be crowdfunded, so kicking in $10 or $20 on an item is extraordinarily useful; a few donations that size to a single item, and it's fulfilled and on its way. All of this, of course, means that we still need shares, daily. So here are all the links:

• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• Wings's site, for sales;
• Lowe's cards (the physical version) via our Amazon wishlist;
• Lowe's e-cards (delivered via e-mail) here; and
• Home Depot cards via the company site. The e-version using my e-mail address is great; I take the tablet to the store with me, and they scan it off the screen.
• Our Amazon wishlist generally.
• Wayfair gift cards, to replenish all the furnishings that the RV has destroyed in one way or another.
• Partial registry #1, from Bed, Bath and Beyond. It's not complete; what's left on it now are doormats and a few other miscellaneous items, although there are more that need to be added.
• Partial registry #2, from Wayfair. Also not complete, but I've finally added a bunch of items to it, mostly now furniture items. But about Wayfair, and VERY IMPORTANT: They make it possible to crowdfund each item. So if you'd like to help, but the prices are too much for one person? You can kick in 20 bucks, or ten, or five, on any one item; many small donations can add up to one item. Even the backordered/out-of-stock items can be crowdfunded in advance. There will also be more items that fall into the badly-needed category eventually (probably mostly kitchen stuff), because the wiring and mold and lime and everything else in this toxic tin can have destroyed so much of what we used to have. I'm sickened by the amount of stuff we have to throw out (on top of the things that were simply ruined, such as the microwave fried by the wiring in that place).

Thank you all, once again, for everything you've done over the last 16 months to get us safe and keep me sane. We are both so thankful for each and every one of you who made it possible for us to sleep (and shower!) now, for the first time in seven years, in a safe and healthy (and warm!) place. I'm going to be mostly unavailable for very nearly anything for almost three weeks now, and it's all complicated by the cold weather and seven years of breathing toxic air. As I said the other night, I will miss everything under the sun, I will forget things, I will screw up things thought to be un-screw-up-able. That's just life with autoimmune disease anyway, and now it's severely exacerbated by all the rest of it. But we have a long way to go, and an absurd amount that needs to get done in three weeks, so please bear with me a while longer. It was 65 today (which is not actually a good thing, but I'm grateful, because plasterwork), but the night before the wedding? Supposed to hit 17, officially; as a practical matter around here, that means anywhere from 3-5 degrees lower in reality. And that's a reminder that we have to get this done, and fast. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.