It's done.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021;
all rights reserved.

It's done.

Just in time for the one-year anniversary of the day Wings and I went fully to ground, which will be tomorrow. A year of this. closer to fourteen months, in actuality, because we began pulling back, stocking up, and limiting our contacts in January of 2020, and by February, we were already pretty well isolated. March 18th was the day we locked down hard, some time before the state got around to it.

Anyway, second dose this morning, and while I don't feel as well as I did after the first dose, I don't feel absolutely terrible yet either, so maybe I'll be spared the worst of the side effects.

Or maybe they'll hit in a few hours, or tomorrow morning.

Whatever. I can live with feeling crappy for a bit if it means that [hopefully] I will no longer be at such great risk of drowning in my own lung fluids. Yes, there's all the worry over variants and whatever new superbugs will be coming down the pike (and they will be coming), but maybe we can stave off this one, at least.

It is going to slow me down on everything I have to get done, though. Expect everything to be late and haphazard until this stuff is out of my system, which could be a few hours or a few days or a few weeks (Shingrix completely flattened me for 3 weeks, and at the 5-week mark, I was still feeling it, so . . .). For now, though, I'm just profoundly grateful to have it done. [And it's not lost on me that I got moved up because someone didn't take advantage of theirs.]

Anyway, nothing's changed since yesterday on anything else, other than the fact that it's sunny to east, cloudy to the west, and the wind is howling straight from the north. The dusting from overnight is long since gone, but it's freezing, so I'm staying put indoors by the fire. I have to get to work this week anyway on organizing our taxes and a bunch of other stuff for the year to come. The delay on the freezer (and they charged us a FORTUNE this time around for delivery) means delaying our inquiry into Pojoaque's bison program (or any real meat purchases at all right now) and see how much it will cost to buy a share of a buffalo. Early research suggests around ~$2K, so we may need to crowdfund that. The thing about it is that it won't feed only us; it'll get shared with other folks.

Also, Sunday, we submitted an application to the state for a grant that, if we're lucky enough to get it, will cover about 2/3 of the cost of the well we have to drill as soon as possible ("as soon as possible" being months in the offing yet, because $15K total for the whole operation, and also they're booked for several months already). And then there's Wings's hearing aids, because I think he's finally convinced that we need to make the investment. I'm going to need to set up PayPal pools to fund them, absent making a whole bunch of sales now. It's endless, and I am so tired just thinking about it.

The last couple of years have required us to dig deep and ante up to help others at a level we've never done before. This year? The first two and a half months of 2021? Has already buried that. But as I said about that being why we do what we do, especially now in these days of pandemic, it's become abundantly clear that too often, there IS NO tomorrow, and the only chance you might have to help someone stay alive is TODAY. Things are bad locally; no economy, nothing. No vaccines for most folks dependent on the state system, either. We have lost SO much to 2020 (and already in 2021), 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. People continue to need help, and we give it, but we're up well over $2 grand in just that one week, and a whole lot more before and since. 

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. This is why I've had to stop doing some things; there are just not enough hours in the day anymore, and I've got to make it all of this up somewhere. So:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are LaminaSaver for Miika & metal/glass cleaners);
• 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 up this staggering outlay somehow. There's even new work, here and here and now here, among other new pieces from 3 weeks ago, 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.