Ungodly levels of stress.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

Some green [weeds, all], some shadows, some bare [dead] limbs, and no water in the pond whatsoever.

Probably no chance of it, either.

It's dry and arid, with gale-force winds again today. Which means that this day, like the whole week, has been nothing but misery. Of course, I don't actually know how to allocate it, percentage-wise: I mean, how much is just the winds, how much is the side effects of last week's chemo dose [not happening today, not at that level], how much is my illness progressing on all fronts, and how much is the result of the ungodly levels of stress I'm being forced to carry right now.

I feel like those bare branches; those that aren't already dead are dying, and it's entirely preventable, except that no one is willing to make it possible.

This has been an absolutely awful day at the end of an equally awful week. No sales. No improvement in my symptoms, but plenty of drastic worsening, some likely temporary, some very surely not. No improvement in Wings's dental issues. This was supposed to be the week I got things caught up, because next week will be a mess again, but I've been too ill to keep up with anything, and everything else has made it impossible anyway, because what everyone else wants always seems to have to take priority. I've spent a good chunk of the afternoon fighting off tears, and at this moment, I am at the end of my rope, because there's no help for me, and none is ever going to be forthcoming, either.

And we still have 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.

And 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. [Oh, and we gave away $1,800 worth of inventory as honor gifts for a young person dancing (traditionally) for the first time. Which is fine, but now I have to make up for what we haven't sold] It's 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); 
• 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.