Sunday, September 1, 2019

The last sunset of summer.

Photo copyright Aji, 2019; all rights reserved.

The last sunset of August, and it held all the haunting, melancholy quality of the last sunset of summer.

Yes, yes, I know that the calendar puts the first day of fall three weeks away yet, but on this first day of September when we'll still have a high of 90, fall's been here for more than a month already. The willows are going yellow fast, the maples already turning red. You can see the confusion in the wildlife, too.

And it means that we're running out of time.

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.

Tired doesn't mean idle. My left shoulder and leg are having problems this morning (in addition to the usual), but the work still has to get done. And in addition to the endless chase for sales, and the endless (mostly unsuccessful) attempts to squeeze in a little writing, I'm changing the linens, washing all the old linens, running the deep-clean cycle on the dishwasher, and defrosting the freezer, as well as laying out beads for a bunch of new pieces Wings has in mind for those series. And no, I haven't eaten yet, why do you ask?

Anyway. 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. 

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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