Not done climbing.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

I shot that just over an hour ago. Already, the snow is visibly melting. The mercury has gone from 49 to 51 in a matter of minutes, and it's not done climbing.

The high right now? Should be 20, at most.

People don't grasp the scope and scale of this collapse, nor how it's accelerating.

::Sigh:: fitting start to the week, unfortunately, since everything is falling apart around me, and the expenses are not done climbing, either.

Taxes are due in a few weeks. That's non-negotiable. But we are also cursed with this septic system mess, and the guy who does the work of fixing these kinds of disasters [who we know; he's a good guy] 1) is unlikely to be able to do it before well into March, and 2) is convinced, based on our description and what the septic cleanout guys have told us, that it's going to require digging a whole new leachfield. We don't have that kind of money.

On top of that, my laptop is dying, and I don't have the kind of money I need to replace it [the image work I do means that it has to have a certain level of power]. It's been on the decline for three or four months, but I thought I had more time; last night, it became clear that it's going to be a very big problem sooner rather than later. If I can't replace it, I can't work; if I can't work, there's no income. 

And the only way out of this is SALES.

We have had one sale this whole month (in the first couple of days of it), and nothing since, and that's not gonna cut it, especially with my Patreon down $250 again this month. We're already paying out $200+ every 8-10 days to have the tank pumped, because the water has nowhere to go [and believe me, we're conserving as much as we can]. The next will be on Tuesday, the day after tomorrow. All this nonsense comes in one of our two most costly months of the year as it is, and in the same quarter as taxes, and no amount of tearing my hair out is going to make all this reconcile, but here we are. Amid the constant, unremitting physical pain and the ugly new developments and complete and utter lack of an immune system in a place where no one mitigates the pandemic in the slightest, leaving me almost entirely housebound.

I got the first five pieces of Wings's new work up yesterday: the ring and four pairs of earrings, here, here, here, here, and here. I had thought he wold have two additional pairs of earrings yesterday, but it turns out that it wasn't two, it was four, and he swears he'll have them done for me to get up yet today. Several of them will be in the $350/pair range; three pairs are more elaborate and will be somewhat higher. I am at my wits' end after our worst year in recent memory last year and this year starting off so badly on so many fronts, and I need help sharing our links and his work. As always, all the links are listed below, and sales are the most important:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities now are the liquid soaps and especially the vacuum, because mine has died a complete and ignominious death, and if I don't vacuum every single day, the dog hair takes over completely [and the dustbuster is just not cutting it]); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site about a dozen all told over the last three weeks or so, cuffs and earrings and pins, plus the necklace and earrings to come. After such a grim 2023, we really need to get this year started off on a better footing, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.