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| Photo copyright Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. |
Yesterday was Chinook's one-year anniversary of coming home. As you can see, she was supremely unbothered by any notion of the passage of time, or of the angst of the outside world.
If only.
We got our nightmare errand handled today — well, mostly. One part of it we couldn't get done, because we need some information from someone else, but the really bigbadurgent part of it went like clockwork. The other part can wait, because, welp, we're all supposed to be in quarantine anyway, aren't we?
And today, it hit close to home; COVID-19 is here in Taos. NM has been averaging 3-4 new cases a day for the last few days, and by the time we got home from our errand, it had jumped from 21 last night to 23 confirmed today. Where in Taos County precisely is, of course, unspecified, and the only available information is that it's a man in his 50s. Unfortunately, self-isolation here is so far mostly honored in the breach; people have not seemed to be taking it at all seriously with regard to staying home. I hope this wakes them up.
The Pueblo is now taking it seriously. When we left this morning, we discovered that someone had been by in the early hours and stuck a packet of printouts in the gate, with all the basic information we all see everywhere online. Then this afternoon, someone else came by just to check in with Wings, part of checking on all elders 70 and above to make sure they have contact info updated and so forth, because they're the largest at-risk group. And now, we are in for the duration, more or less, and I could not be happier about it. There will be scrips to refill and mail to pick up and bills to pay and taxes to get done. But we plan to leave here as little as humanly possible in the kind of world we have today. As far ahead as we're able to see and anticipate, we're mostly ready. But it's going to get very ugly out in the world. Lest anyone think this doesn't hit close to home, we have a family member dependent on a ventilator. What happens to him?
But those bills still have to get paid, and no one's offering to whack our monthly payments for utilities and the medical loan and other stuff. Capitalism is alive and well and taking full advantage, so I have GOT to bring in more income. On top of the pressures that accompany Wings's dental work, it's going to be costly for other reasons. Between the tow and the garage bill, we had to shell out $700 cash that I had already allocated for other expenses. That's $700 on top of the regular bills for the month, most of which are due this week. Another $300 for medical and prescription costs already this week. There was another $350 yesterday we weren't expecting (someone here who needed help badly), and some of that we will get back, either in repayment or in kind, but probably not for a long while, and it's still a HUGE hit out the door at once, in cash. And a couple of other folks who needed help (and we are mostly tapped out on that front; we have helped, with cash, an unusually high number of people since the first of the year, and we're not going to be able to do that anymore, because at the rate the bad things just keep coming, what we have now might have to hold us for the year). So I have to make up well into four figures' worth fast, which means I've got to start bringing in some scratch from sales, subscriptions, everywhere and anywhere I can, especially since we don't have a fix on Wings's recovery time from all this slated for next week. There's a major new piece up, linked in Friday's post, that goes perfectly with yesterday and today's pieces, also linked below this one. Please share them, because we need help to make sales. The links are here:
Please share everything. Thanks.
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
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