Shadows and tracks.

Photo copyright Aji, 2019;; all rights reserved.

Yesterday evening shadows and tracks everywhere on the snow. Some undoubtedly good omens; others, maybe not so much.

Today, the shadows are suppressed and the tracks will soon be covered. Our forecast has changed, more than a bit: The weather system that was supposed to hit late tonight (in practical terms, overnight, which means in the early hours of tomorrow morning), remains on track. But there was a smaller, secondary system hovering over Baja on last night's radar map, and that one has shifted direction a bit. Instead of clear skies and warmish air, we have cold gray damp, the kind that has long since seeped into my bones and joints with entirely predictable results, and I've been working this morning while watching a brief storm blanket the summit of Wheeler Peak already. A second one is there now.

What this means is that my schedule for the day is already upended, hence the effort to get the usual posts up and done early. Instead of preparing for snow late, we'll likely be battling at least flurries early, so the outdoor work needs to get done first. I'll be scattered all day trying to get everything done, so bear with me, but I'll also have four new pieces to feature here: a pair of earrings from the other day that I simply haven't had time to highlight yet, and three new Warrior Woman pins, all three bearing some new imagery. Please watch for them and share the links, because we have got to make more sales. 

As I said yesterday, we have made a couple of sales over the last few days, which has taken the immediate strain off me a bit, but even so, there's no room for me to let up on the sales effort. Winter's already early and hard, and we've got about 7 months of it left. The rest is all cut-and-paste, but please read it anyway. It matters, because while sales are literally all that matters at the moment, what else the wind leaves behind is all the rest of the work, and ALL of the bills. But really, it's SALES. 

SALES SALES SALES. That's all it's about now. A lot of y'all don't realize this, but the Pueblo closes for much of the winter, starting usually a month to six weeks after the new year. Even before Christmas, the whole month of December locks vehicles out of the village, and that reduces tourist traffic a lot. Even though we're not physically there anymore, the drop in tourism affects us, too — and the numbers are down all over town and seemingly getting worse every single year.

What folks also don't realize is that this means that holiday sales are what keep us alive, through not just the end of the year but essentially the first six months of the year to come. If we could sell the belt featured below, it would keep us going well into the new year. This is it; this is what the whole year leads up to, and even in off years, Wings would still be filling commissions beginning around the first of October. 

This year? ONE commission. And there are, effectively, only a couple of weeks left of the holiday sales season, because it takes time to make things, to say nothing of shipping them.

I don't know what we're going to do.

I'm back to using my rescue inhaler daily, along with the O2 at night, to deal with the breathing issues attending the sudden cold. My pain levels, especially after putting my body through so much these last few weeks to protect the house, are completely unmanageable now. I've decided I'm going to refuse to cancel my doctor's appointment on the fifth, because even if nothing is coming in, even if we have a winter to get through, I have to be here to do all that. For those wondering about my own health issues, see here, although now there's a new wrinkle I'm not even going to bother to try to explain (suffice to say there's no affording treatment); with regard to the work being done, some of the details are here. Folks can help in several ways, and we really need it now:

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