As metaphor, it's frighteningly on-point.

Photo copyright Aji, 2023; all rights reserved.

At dawn, there was a big bank of blue-black clouds in the western sky. It even delivered a small shower of rain, which was both lovely and welcome, if far too short. The rest of the morning brought lovely stormy skies, but with the clouds dissipating already.

Now, it's mostly sunny, much hotter, and there's no sign of relief to be had anywhere, at any price.

That's a lot more than just literal, too; as metaphor, it's frighteningly on-point.

All the rest is cut-and-paste, because it's only Monday, and I am beat. Also beaten down, but expenses, by circumstance, by unrelenting pain and fatigue, by the knowledge of what I have to raise for Wings, very fast, and the corresponding knowledge that there is simply no way to do it. I am tired, I am sad, I am scared; I feel useless, and I just need space to be sad and mourn everything I'm still in the process of losing, but I can't have even that.

Because we still have to pay all of next year's quarterly taxes; it took everything we had just to get this year's covered, finally, last month, and there's nothing left for quarterly pre-payments now. Add to that the fact that my Patreon is down this month (i.e., the payout for June on July 1st,) by more than $250, a huge monthly hit that we can't afford, the payment for Miika's hay (she can't have alfalfa and grass is now impossibly costly), and Stormy's upcoming vet visit on top of the dental stuff, and . . . . Storm appears to have developed ovarian remnant syndrome (she's gone into heat almost three years after being spayed), and that will probably involve an ultrasound or a lap right up front, and then either surgery or lifetime meds, and frankly, I'm hoping for the latter, for her as much as for us. But we can't catch a break. Every time I think I have a handle on whatever's immediately in front of us, two or three or four new things pile on.

But the dental stuff is going to be $25k before we're done, and for us, thats all in cash, and . . . $25K. I don't even have words. Or anything else. I'm just numb.

But I can't let Wings go without this dental work; aside from the damage to his quality of life, for a diabetic? It's a medical issue, and two different dental institutions have spent years jerking him around and risking his health and well-being. 

So I have GOT to bring in more sales, NOW. There's a lot of new work on the site already, including Wings's absolutely phenomenal new cuff, which you can see from all angles here (and you want to see it from all angles, believe me). I posted the two new pairs of earrings here the other night, and the new gemstone bead trio is yesterday's feature, here. Meanwhile, he has more silverwork in rotation, too (two cuffs, more earrings. And . . . $25K. I don't have any other way to do this for him, especially with losing Patreon subscriptions at this rate; that's been our only "guaranteed" monthly income. All the links are listed below, so please share:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (current priority still the Zero-Odor sprays, because these days we're back to wet dogs again; and the liquid soaps, which we can't get locally); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site, and things are grim here, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.