The winds continue to do their damage.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

That was this morning. It's now almost entirely clouds, all leaden gray skies amid gale-force winds. That doesn't mean we'll get anything out of them; likely not, in fact. But in all honesty? I think it's more likely that we'll get a little rain from these than from yesterday's useless forecast.

Meanwhile, the winds continue to do their damage: on the land, on objects in their path, on my joints and connective tissue. As I said yesterday, I finally figured out the other night that my current misery is not due just to last week's chemo, nor just to the accumulated stress of recent months, nor even just to these damned trickster winds, because I have that one hallmark of a full-blown autoimmune flare: what feels like a fever without a, you know, fever. You know that weakness deep inside every muscle that you get with a fever? It's that, and the body aches, without the elevation in body temperature. It's been a while since I've had to deal with this — not since starting the chemo, actually, so that points to a progression in my illness[es; plural, because it's both lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and also several other things]. And there's no seeing the doc until the end of this month, for both of us.

And we still have to pay for those major medical other expenses later this month [and throughout, "we" means that I am the one who has to figure out how everything gets covered]; there's Wings's ongoing dental; we have some bureaucratic nonsense to take care of; and somehow, and I have GOT to bring in something for taxes. And the other demands on me are just as relentless [the ones that don't, directly, anyway, have to do explicitly with money]; there is no help for any of it, and I am at my wits' end over the latter ones especially. Combined with my illness progressing? I need help.

Meanwhile, my Patreon is still down by more than $700 a month over last year, and as our most consistent source of income, that is what pays our monthly bills like utilities and groceries and gas and so forth. What remains is not going to be enough even for that, never mind the taxes and everything else. Somehow, I have to bring in sales. If you're in the market, now would be a really, REALLY good time.And as always, all the regular links are listed below, with sales, as always, being the most important:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (Amazon cards are most important now, because they go to buy things we can't get locally, like the protein mixes for Wings and GF stuff for me and all the cleaning and other household products that people in cities can get but we can't; and also the filters for the air purifiers, because we have only one left and the amount of dust and dirt they take in in these winds is indescribable); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim 2023, and with this year starting off MUCH worse (and given that we're already approaching the half-way mark), we really need to get 2024 onto 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.