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| Photo copyright Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. |
Sometimes a rainbow isn't what you want to see.
We knocked ourselves out trying to tarp as much of the deck as we could, forget the steps and railings, and still, there are gaps. And we got heavy rains last night, the kind that cause flooding, although not for us, thankfully. Now the forecast has more for late today, and for tomorrow, too.
I'm feeling a way right now. I feel like I've been beaten within an inch of my life; that's how bad my pain is these days. The tiny amount of pain meds I'm permitted barely takes the thinnest edge off. And yet, I helped Wings (and he's in constant pain, too, although of a different kind) two days running with the tarping that the guys should've done before they left. I roasted a seasoned loin for dinner last night with almond rice. Today I've already managed feeding dogs, feeding us (blue corn blueberry piñon pancakes, yes, made from scratch), laundry and dishes and work posts and miscellaneous other work, and I'll be stacking firewood soon. Three trips in as many days to and from Questa because no one locally in this over-colonized McMansion-oriented town had an upright sander for rent. The guys who were supposed to be here at ten this morning to help with some stuff just showed up, an hour late. And we had to lay River off because he's become completely unreliable, begging for hours such that we rearrange our schedules and tasks, showing up one day and then bailing the next two, days which he had specifically asked to work, and informing Wings that he would instead work other hours of his choosing that were apparently more convenient to his social life. Nope.
I work my ass off, pain or no, every single day. So does Wings. And I'm getting tired of dealing with everyone else who wants money but doesn't want to do anything for it. We're out a ton of money on repairs that should never have been needed, I'm canceling my own medical appointments, and last night I just lost it entirely because the pain was so bad that I couldn't take it anymore. I'm trying, Wings is trying, but no one meets us even halfway.
I can't deal with this now, so the rest is cut and paste. I have work to do. Upshot: We need sales, lots of them, badly, and we need help to make them, so please share all the links near the bottom.
As I said before, the work the guys are doing has to be done before the weather turns cold, much less before the first snow (which, by the way, local elders are apparently predicting for late September this year, not mid-October). We're already tapping the funds we had set aside for my medical testing to do this (and I have some testing at the end of this month that cannot be put off, so we'll have to pay for that anyway). I don't have the requisite alchemical powers to manufacture money out of nothing, but as always, I'll find a way because I have no choice. But we have got to make some sales.
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. For August, a record number/amount of my Patreon patrons' cards were declined, too, so that income is lower than usual (no, I don't know who and haven't checked; I'm not going to contact anyone who probably is already scrambling to juggle their own stuff, too).
I'm going to be slammed all week, in terms of both time and money. Today is no exception. Wings did get his four new necklaces completed Monday — ones that he crafted these to complement four of the stand-alone pairs of earrings in that collection (and I expect that he will likely wind up doing the same with all of those that have not yet sold, but we'll see). I posted them (with their coordinating earrings) here Monday night, so please go to the links and share them all (and buy if you happen to be in the market, of course).
Anyway. Back to the grind; so I need help to get all this done. Folks can help in several ways:
On the wishlist, there are two MAJOR priorities right now: the fly traps and the peppermint oil. The former are needed in quantity because this is horsefly season, and the numbers are overwhelming our efforts; the latter, because it's the safest, most human method of keeping mice out, and with lows now in the 40s, they'll be trying to find a way in every, house, studio, vehicles, barn, chicken coop, you name it. Also, around here? It's deer mice. You know, the ones that carry hantavirus and plague. All the other stuff is helpful, too; the candles are to deal with the residual mildew odor in the utility room (which we have to get the plumber out to finish, probably next week, which means more $$ out the door, and I'm tearing my hair out trying to juggle it all; I'll be canceling some medical stuff to do it).
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 of work. Patreon subscriptions are good, too. Either way, it's a trade for value. But I'm already feeling panicked at what we thought would 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 a few days, with more to come probably over the weekend/early in the week (the reason I'm laying them out for him today, as it happens); you can see, share, and shop the newest ones 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.
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