Everything's late.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

I am wiped out. Completely. Neither of us has had a chance to eat properly today, and the afternoon was taken up with our friend the door expert here to work on the issues with the front and side doors. Everything's fixed, and while it set us back three figures, it was nowhere nearly as bad as I had feared [but I've still gotta make it up, though].

The side door needed to be rehung, because Jeld-Wen's proprietary hinges [that they no longer make, in hopes of forcing people to buy a whole new door] suck; two of the three hinges simply broke apart, and we're damn lucky we didn't have a broken door, broken glass, or injured us or dogs in the process when the whole thing fell in flat on the kitchen floor a few months back.  The front door needed some jerry-rigging to make up for the damage that terrible windstorm inflicted, tearing off a part of the bottom where the two come together, which occurred while said wind was busy tearing open the deadbolted door [climate collapse is here, and then some], and replacing the lock in the door handle, which has not worked for months, apparently the result of someone literally trying to break into our house while we were out once.

I've gotten a lot done today, but none of my work, so everything's late. Wings managed to get some work done in the studio beforehand, one of which is the new pair of earrings above, which I covet terribly. Ethereally chatoyant gray moonstone, and all the stampwork on those conchas?  It looks like it's done by laser, but it's not; every single mark was rendered freehand. I don't even have their name from him yet, so they're not up on the site yet, but you can buy them for $525 + s/h/i.

And I need to make some sales badly. Second week of the shortest month, and it's been a hell of a year already. We're hemorrhaging money. Wings had to buy silver last Wednesday, and the cost has skyrocketed. Thursday, it was another $700 out the door for septic service [that's killing us right now] and refilling our propane tank. Fortunately, the latter is something we only do once a year at most, sometimes once every couple of years. But it was in the red zone, which means it's time, and the cost has gone up drastically since the last time we had it done.

Just like everything else.

We have to get that side door repaired [remember when it fell out of its door sill last year, because Jeld-Wen's proprietary hinges (that they no longer make) just . . . broke? that one; gonna try again this Thursday]. Apparently, we also need to get the water heater serviced. I spent too much time on a ladder Saturday doing battle with it, and I think I've got a workaround for now, but that will only work for so long. On top of that, we have relatives with traditional responsibilities coming up, and that's very, very expensive, so we've had to help them out [and will have to do so in the months to come]. Another elder came to us last Tuesday for help. And the taxes have to come before the leachfield. Add to all that the fact 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 week , 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. 

Oh, and at some point, I'm going to need a power wheelchair. I have been feeling like death warmed for two weeks, and it's all autoimmune, but knowing that doesn't change it, doesn't make the slightest bit more functional. The pain and fatigue are absolute hell, and it's keeping me from doing the work I need to be doing. Because I have GOT to bring in more income to cover all these outlays and shortfalls somehow.

My Patreon down $250 again; that's both January's payout and now February's. That's a huge hit for us, one I suspect will prove permanent, but it's even worse right now, since 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]. All this nonsense comes 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.

And you wonder why I'm depressed? This is why.

Which is why the only way out of this is SALES. Please, go look. Go buy.

Wings has more earrings just completed a couple of days ago [one sold the other night; the rest are here, here, and here], as well as four new Warrior Woman pins [turquoise here, jade here, amber here, and carnelian here], and a truly extraordinary pendant [necklace] in the works that I'm not even going to describe here yet. The earrings and pins will be up later today on the site, although I've posted the images on social media already. I got the Wings's previously most recent pairs of earrings and the ring up last week: those that remain in inventory are here, here, here, here, and here. These are all more moderately priced than most of his work [as are the newest ones, 2 pairs at $225 each and 2 pairs at $175 each], and the silverwork and stones are absolutely incredible, so go look. 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 the descalers that I can't get here; 
• 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 and necklaces and more earrings [and soon, all the items I mentioned above]. 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.