These are the hard days of winter.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

See those blank spots on the steps and railings, where there's no snow accumulated?  That's not from shoveling, nor from melting. That's the ground blizzard. We have extremely high winds today driving in hard from due north [and this is about the only circumstance in which we get north winds here, natch], and it's sending the snow cover flying on the horizontal.

The temperature overnight is supposed to drop to eight below zero [actual temp; wind chill will be much worse yet]. It's supposed to be even colder overnight toward the end of the week.

These are the hard days of winter.

January's always hard anyway, regardless of weather. Aside from taxes, it's one of our two most costly months [the other being July], when we have a disproportionate number of one- and two-off expenses. Coming on the heels of such a terrible sales year, it's not good. It's even worse since, once again, my Patreon was short ~$250, and made worse still by the new $600-800 a month for septic service all winter and half of spring ($200 of it paid out Saturday, and the next round will be in 8 days or so]. And while the MTX [the chemo], dose now doubled, is helping with inflammation and with things like focus and brain fog, it's not doing a damn thing, yet anyway, for the progressive pain. n days like this, with such terrible winds and deep cold, it's really bad. All of which, I suppose, I should expect, given the level of joint damage I'm living with now.

But that means the need to make at least one sale a week never lets up. We were blessed with one last week; now I need to do the same for this one. As I said earlier, the two new cuffs are done, and they're posted here and here (the second is gone already, a gift for someone dear to us who did us a huge favor the other day). Those who like turquoise in the greens, these will be for you. There will be more new works to come, never mind Wings saying that he was taking time of from creating new work from sheer fatigue; that resolution lasted all of two days. You might see something new in this week's #TBT post; he also has his fourth naja in the works. And also as always, all the links are listed below, and sales are the most important:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities now are Wings's Flex-Tape, 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); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

There's lots of fabulous work on the site [EIGHT NEW PIECES before Christmas [one sold], plus two new ones a couple of nights before that]. 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.