There's a pall over everything now. That's what it looks like on a good night these days, and that's not clouds, it's smoke. The headache never goes away, nor does the inability to breathe properly. Meanwhile, there's no leadership on any front, and while the now-somewhat-less-orange Nazi is busy staging infectious joyrides to get his fix of cult adoration, cases here are spiking once again.
Added to that risk is the fact that I am still not over this vaccine reaction. Saturday was frankly pure misery; yesterday was better, but not great, and today the migraine has settled in on top of everything else. It's all aggravated by the crappy air quality. This is the month when our air is clearest, but no norms apply anymore, on any front, I guess.
And here, we have a fight ahead of us now, on all fronts. The pandemic conditions and the drought are not going away. The pandemic is spiking in NM again, including here. Around 300 new cases Saturday, on a day when multiple labs don't bother report; 341 the day before. Almost 200 yesterday, a day of the week when lab non-reporting and state slow-walking of the numbers have resulted in figures under 100 for weeks now. The dental clinic is "closed" because reportedly it was the dentist himself who tested positive, and there's now a confirmed case in the local schools.
To make matters worse, Wings is having issues with a tooth, and so will probably need to see the expensive, cash-on-the-barrelhead dentist this week regardless. We're trying to avoid medical/dental stuff as much as possible, but sometimes it's not possible, and I'm afraid this will be one of those times. But there's more [there's always more]. I have got to make more sales.
They're now officially forecasting a drought-ridden winter, so this will be the hardest kind of winter it's possible to have here. Give us three feet of snow and subzero temps any day over this. But nope; our water woes are only going to get worse. We have to be able to drill that well, and soon, but I don't have $15K lying around to make it happen. Still, it will be winter, and I will have to raise enough for us to buy at least a couple more full-sized loads of firewood, because winter lasts six months at this elevation. Add to that the fact that I still have to put off the car repair, the propane tank rental is due this month, a better farrier (the one who put us on track with Cree; he's not local) is coming out to look at Miika on the 22nd, and the pups get their final boosters on Wednesday, and I've got a lot of expense to cover yet this month. I paid the quarterly taxes yesterday. There's not much left; nowhere near enough to cover the bills, much less anything else.
And we can expect sales to continue to be terrible. As I said, thanks to a friend, we got September completely covered. If I could make a couple of large sales, I could feel fairly confident that I've got October covered, but not until then, because there are still all the regular bills, plus allowing for medical and other stuff that's bound to crop up. Which means that, no matter how sick I still feel from this vaccine, I've got to get on it. I'm still delaying the tow and the car repair because those two alone are going to be many more hundreds of dollars than we can afford. Selling Wings's newest work would do it: It's the "Summer" entry in Wings's limited series of necklaces, The Four Seasons ("Winter" sold back in, well, winter; "Spring" is still available here; and "Fall" is, of course, yet to come). You can see it here, and it's incredible. He has other new work in the Bracelets and Earrings Galleries.
We're still going to need help to make sales through the rest of this awful year. I'm not asking for donations; there are too many people worse off than us, people who don't know where their next meal is coming from, who very shortly may not have (or already don't have) a roof over their heads. But this pandemic has killed tourism for Indigenous artists like Wings, and has killed everyone's sales. Businesses are closing left and right here, and we're blessed to be able to work out of our home, but still, sales are, in relative terms, down to nothing.
You can help by sharing our links. You can especially help if you're in the market for high-end, Spirit-infused Indigenous wearable art, for yourself or as a gift, by considering Wings's work for purchase. It's also back-to-school season, even if remotely in some places, with all the events that that entails; birthdays come and go year-round; Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas especially will all be here before we know it.
The links are here:
And making sure everything's covered? That part of it is all on me, no matter how sick I am, no matter how much pain I'm in, no matter how little sleep I get. And with this hanging over me, I'm getting precious little sleep now. We need to be able to continue to help folks, and we're going to keep on doing it. But to do that, and to keep our own heads above water, we need to bring in sales closer to normal rates. Items from the wishlist help, too. But the big thing is bringing in sales, so please help us do that if you can. Thanks.
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and 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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