Coming in hard and fast.

Photo copyright Aji, 2019; all rights reserved.

Yes, that's a giant-looking hummingbird up at the top of the photo, coming in hard and fast above the covered banisters. An approach, unfortunately, that's a perfect metaphor for all the expenses we're suddenly facing again.

Yesterday was a mess all the way around. Metal-work guy never showed about the kick plates; the guys need an upright deck sander for the deck floor and the steps, and no one nearer than Santa Fe has one for rent. Unfortunately, we would have to travel down to Santa Fe in hopes that it's there on the relevant day, and if it's not, we've made a trip for nothing and would have to do it all over again. And, of course, the rental and deposit aren't cheap. Our best-case scenario is that they can make it work with either a floor sander or a larger orbital with a long handle, and that we can buy one outright; several hundred dollars on the barrelhead, but no more expensive than the costs, and ridiculousness, of trying to rent a really basic piece of construction and repair equipment not to be found in a county overflowing with colonial McMansions.

Wings also had his preliminary appointment with the orthopedic surgeon yesterday (and just before we left, we discovered that Clover, one of the chickens, had gone to sleep and will not awaken again, but you can read about her here if you're so inclined). The upshot is that we're all looking at, say, Novemberish for this, maybe into December. His a1c is just a fraction over the line for the surgery (heightened infection risk in diabetics, and heightened risk anyway when a foreign object, such as a new knee, is being introduced into the body, this the reason for the hard and fast rule). So, since he doesn't do well on some of the newer meds that would shove it down much faster (and wreak havoc on his equilibrium), we have to do this the organic way, so to speak, with some really fine tuning of his diet (and mine with it, because I'll keep him company along the way). He's at another appointment today, one where I would just be in the way (physical pain management kind of stuff), and while there was nothing out of pocket yesterday thanks to Medicare, today there will be. And a lot more to come.

The medical expenses aren't going to let up for me, either. Nothing's changed on the pain front; see here for details if you really want to know (it's not pleasant). What we're having to expend now to fix all this before winter comes (and when the guys are available to do it), because it will be many more times as expensive if we have to replace everything next year because it rotted over the winter months? That's what we had set aside for my future medical testing later this year and into next (because there's a LOT of it yet to be done, and it all costs a fortune). So I'm having to push sales to replace that, and that means it's all stress all the time, because I now have to raise a lot more money sooner than I expected, and still deal with whatever might be in the offing medically. Some of the details are here; the upshot is that I've got to raise about $3,500 just for this first go-around, which I hope will cover about three weeks' worth of labor on all this stuff. We've managed $755 in sales, which means another $2,745 to go, and I'm so tired.

So I need help to get all this done. Folks can help in several ways:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here. 

And as I said, sales are ideal, of course; one or two of Wings's bigger pieces would cover the whole shot for this round. Patreon subscriptions are good, too. Either way, it's a trade for value. But I'm already feeling panicked at what we thought wold be our schedule being so suddenly and thoroughly upended, and we'll take it however it comes at this point. Oh, Wings dropped new bead pieces yesterday, with more to come probably over the weekend; you can see, share, and shop yesterday's here.

Please share everything, because I'm suddenly back behind the eight-ball on a whole additional front, and yeah, I'm scared about covering everything and surviving, too. Thanks.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.