Some days, you can see the storm coming.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

Six inches of snow, they said. It'll be a real snow, they said. Instead, it's barely an inch, most of melted, and gale-force winds making everything miserable. Including my joints.

Some days, you can see the storm coming, but it doesn't mean what arrives will actually be what it was held out to be.

Wind is about the worst possible option of them all, but here we are.

I'm finding myself increasingly behind, increasingly depressed over that and the progression of my illness, and just seemingly incapable of maintaining any progress. We have relatives with traditional responsibilities coming up, and that's very, very expensive, so we've had to help them out. An elder came to us yesterday for help. The next septic cleanout will need to be tomorrow or Friday [and this kind of weather makes it impossible to tell whether he'll be able to dig in March or not, and we still have no idea what the butcher's bill will be for that]. And the taxes have to come before the leachfield.

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. 

Oh, and at some point, I'm going to need a power wheelchair. 

My Patreon down $250 again; that's both January's payout and now February's. That's a huge hit for us, 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 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.

Which is why the only way out of this is SALES.

Wings has more earrings in the works, four new Warrior Woman pins, and a truly extraordinary pendant [necklace] that i'm not even going to describe here yet. I got the Wings's four newest pairs of earrings up last week: here, here [this pair sold now, too], here [and also this one], and here [and this pair already sold too; he has more planned in this size/style]. The other works were posted the day before: the ring and four pairs of earrings, here, here [also sold now], here, here, and here. These are all more moderately priced than most of his work, and the silverwork and stones are absolutely incredible . . . and Valentine's Day is only days away [but still possible to ship in time for it], so go look. This week's sales won't begin to cover what's waiting for us, but it'll keep basic monthly expenses paid. 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.