Eat your vegetables.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

Stormy says, "Eat your vegetables."

Of course, she likes them, so it's not any great sacrifice for her. [Yes, that's half a giant carrot in her mouth, almost as big as she is.]

But society has to do the equivalent now, and the tantrums have already begun. Meanwhile, thanks in large part to those tantrums, and the refusal to do what's required, I am going to buried for the foreseeable future. Today's post is always a long one, made longer today by the addition of new work and all that that entails. So it's coming later, and I'm posting this and boosting JoanMar's now. Watch for the one from Wings's site, because it'll include two new silverwork pieces.

The first of the year is always brutal. I'm coming down off the 3-month adrenaline rush that's required to keep pace with the demands of the holidays business-wise, this year complicated by pandemic and even greater fascism. And January 21st is no kind of magic bullet; as a friend and I were saying earlier today (and Wings and I, as well), that's merely the day the REAL work begins. And I am such extreme pain that I have not had any real sleep since before the end of 2020, and I am paying a heavy price every moment of every day. Thursday begins a week or two of hell for me: 8 AM drop-off of Stormy for spaying, to be picked up that night or the next day; from there to the clinic for Wings to get his first dose of the vaccine, and based on what we've been told to expect by way of side effects, I will likely have to spend at least the next week, possibly two, picking up all the physical labor around here, too. Friday, I'll have to take him to another [routine] appointment, and somewhere along the line, I have to be able to get my pain meds refilled, too. I am going to have NO time, I am going to be scattered and forgetful and unfocused, and that's just the way it's going to have to be, because his safety in this deliberately-genocidal mess is more important than anything else. But it's going to be rough, and after two and a half weeks already of almost no sleep and massively spiked constant pain? I won't be here for any bullshit whatsoever. This colonial country can eat its damn vegetables, or it can fucking starve.

On the plus side, JoanMar met the match 6 days ago, and the matching funds were deposited moments later, putting her halfway to goal. Another mutual friend is setting up a GoFundMe on her behalf, and that will make tracking easier, and hopefully make fundraising easier, too. But thanks to the generous donor with the matching funds, she hit the 50% of goal mark early Tuesday afternoon, and that is a beautiful thing in and of itself. On top of that, Wings is getting the first dose of the vaccine this Thursday (it goes by age, and he just made it, probably in part because he's diabetic; my number won't be up for a few weeks yet). That is a huge load off my mind, too.

As I've said, January is always the hardest month of our year (July runs a close second, but it's not as bad as January). We have a ton of annual or biannual expenses that come due, some insurance but mostly business-related. That fact doesn't make them any less necessary, nor any less urgent, and this year winds up being the most expensive yet. We received some very, very good news a few days ago, and I'll be able to cover all of it before the month is out. Barring catastrophe, I'll be able to cover necessities for a good while. Eve before today, I have been mindful of the fact that we will not freeze or starve, and that puts us in a position far more fortunate than too many folks in families this winter, in the middle of a deadly global pandemic currently raging unchecked here. BUT: I still have to bring in consistent sales (only 4 the entire holiday season, an all-time low courtesy of the pandemic economy), and I still need to boost my Patreon (which is down $300 on this month's payout already), because there's a long, long year ahead of us, and a whole year's worth of direct attempts to harm people using the pandemic as a vehicle will not be corrected by the end of the year, let alone a few months.

There is no economy now. There's nothing. People are literally dying all around us from the government's failures, and I don't know how we keep them, or us, alive unless I can cover the bills. We have lost SO much to 2020, so very, very many people, and the gifts and the talents and the knowledge and the wisdom they carried too often lost with them. Because this state has followed the lead of the country and refused to do what was required, we are about to see a very big spike in new cases, probably as early as two weeks from now; the current spike in deaths remains sustained daily. People have needed so much more help than we could give them, but we did as much as we could, even when it put us in a bind, and we will need to do much more of that this year. So:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here;
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And if you've been contemplating a purchase? Marking the birth of 2021 would be a very, very good time to do it. There's even new work, here and here, and there will be two more new pieces shortly, so please watch for them and share the links.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.