Probably not.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

Every now and then, they show us what they really think. It's a Say's phoebe, sitting atop an old giant piece of petrified wood. he'd been looking at me, and I guess he decided to see if we humans look any less weird from an extreme angle. 

Probably not.

Today's appointment got rescheduled, so that left time for other problems. One of which was Wings discovering that he needed to refill the tank for his acetylene torch, because the gauge on it finally gave up the ghost after . . . what? Only thirty-five, forty years. Which is a really good run, but it meant thathe had to refill the tank, which isn't exactly cheap, and I had to order him a new gauge kit, which, by the time tax and shipping were added on, came to $180 cash that we weren't expecting to have to spend this week. And until. it arrives, he won't be able to work in the studio, because it's not just soldering; it's also annealing.

Tomorrow is more expense. I've had almost no sleep for the past four or five days, which ratchets up my pain levels drastically. And as I said yesterday, this week and next are going to be very hard, and very costly. But as I also said, I don't have the resources, physically, mentally, or otherwise to repeat or revise any of it right now, so the rest is all the cut-and-paste, but the upshot is that I need to bring in at least three good sales this week to cover the immediate expenses that can't be delayed (my medical stuff? that's being delayed. again.). Three sales. That's what I need to bring in this week. And the next. Actually, make it four for this week, because the torch kit and tank refill and associated costs came out of what I was expecting to use on medical/tax stuff.

If you haven't been reading daily, you won't know that I've been forced off the lupus meds entirely, because they were dropping my blood glucose to dangerously low levels. Those were D-MARDS (disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs), which have immune-modulating characteristics, which helps ameliorate immunosuppression. I dn't have that anymore; now I have only a wholly inadequate supply of pain meds, and prednisone, which does suppress my immune system, making me far more susceptible to things like COVID (and which we have both managed to avoid for nearly three years now, because we take every conceivable precaution available to us).

The other part of it? Is the PAIN. The moment I went off the meds, my immune system kicked straight into high gear again, and now in addition to all the other lupus symptoms, the pain resulting from the damaged connective tissue around my joints is murderous. It's hard to do anything normally, and not only are we now entering our busiest season of the year, but I am also seriously under the gun to make sales because of everything ahead of us, especially these next two weeks.

We were blessed to make two sales over the weekend, with the promise of another later this week. Top-of-the-head calculations suggest that if I could make three sales a week, every week for the rest of the year, we'd be okay for now. That's an average and a guess, but a pretty close one, I think. So I need to make three more sales between now and this Saturday, then do it all over again each week thereafter.

Put that way, it doesn't sound like much, but it's a lot. But I have to do something. For one thing, Wings is going to need to buy silver to create inventory for the holiday season, and silver prices have literally TRIPLED this year. A lot of Native jewelers and smiths are going to put out of business by that. it's my job to make sure that doesn't happen to him, but I can't do it single-handedly. I need folks to share his work, our links, their testimonials if they own his work already.

Because tomorrow begins the appointments rounds all over again, this time his. Mine are being delayed.

So please, share them. All the links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priority is first and foremost, the other ladder; also sheets);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

We're still hoping to put aside enough for a new well when the ground thaws enough to drill in the spring, too, Nah, we've given up on the well. No one's available to drill before late next year at the earliest, and this year's tax burden means we would never be able to afford it anyway. But it's even more of a good time to make a purchase, because Uncle Sam is a vindictive colonizer, and my current stress levels about paying it all are off the charts. And there's lots of fabulous work, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.