An alive and hungry thing.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

The cold has been bringing us some luminous skies lately. Today, though, it brought a bitter wind, too, straight from the north, and so the cold is an alive and hungry thing today.

That brings back a lot of memories, some from long ago, some far too recent and still too raw. And it's a reminder that however good things may be at any given moment, that can change in an instant (and for a lot of folks, it has).

It's why we do what we do, especially now in these days of pandemic, when it's become abundantly clear that too often, there IS NO tomorrow. Because things are bad locally. There is still no economy now. There's nothing. No vaccines for most folks dependent on the state system, either. And yet the governor has canceled tourist quarantine (not that she ever enforced it in the first place) and reopened most of the state to limited-capacity indoor, sit-down, maskless dining since just before Valentine's Day, because she's completely in thrall to the restaurant lobby and is willing to let them kill us as a result. 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. 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. We have shelled out close to 2 grand over the last 2 weeks of January, including $600 two weeks ago to fill the propane tank, which I was not expecting; close to a grand last weekend for the firewood; and my Patreon remains $300 short again for the second month running. We had to help a family with heat last Sunday, and Wings's clan brother a few days ago with car rental for a week or two. 

We have spent so much time on the kind of work that is utterly unrelated to income that I have got to be able to devote time to replacing all the outlay, and time is in short supply now. We've laid out between $1,100 and $1,200 cash in mutual aid in less than a week, and I have GOT to make it up somehow. My Patreon, which is all monthly our income these days, is wiped out and then some, I still have three monthly bills yet to pay, and one $65 sale in seven weeks is not going to cut it. Yes, I can juggle for now, but I've got to find it again somewhere. Part of my work involves me reorganizing the Web site and then promoting the hell out of everything again. That's on top of all the other work I need to do around here, and I have been mostly useless, largely due to the recent flurry of episodes with my health. For every episode, it takes me multiple days to recover, all while hoping that another one doesn't set me back even further. That's not good. Too many people need help, and the government remains determined to see us die. There's work to do. I've got to make it up somewhere. So:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (copper/metal/glass cleaners on it are needed most);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And if you've been contemplating a purchase? This would be a very, very good time to do it; I've got to make it this staggering outlay somehow. There's even new work, here and here and now here, among other new pieces from last week, too, 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.