I have GOT to bring in some sales today, without fail.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

A lot of haze, and only white clouds so far, but they're building up in the east. More than that, we have very high winds coming from the east, and a warning of a "marginal" chance of "extreme" weather. 

It's the leading edge spinning off Tropical Storm Alberto in the Gulf, and it's completely distinct from the monsoonal pattern from the west that's supposed to arrive tomorrow afternoon.

I'm beat. This week is taking, taking, taking, and I don't have any bandwidth left, and there's still half of it left. Still the other hideous expense to come, and I don't even know whether we'll have enough money to pay for it. If not, I don't get my labs done. I have GOT to bring in some sales today, without fail. [And then for the rest of the month, because the imaging and tests next month will easily run into four figures. The pain's increasing, so I have to get it done. Somehow.]

We still have to pay off our fucking TAXES, for chrissake, and they're hounding me now. And now, replacing the microwave . . . ? The worst part of not having it is that I can't heat up the frisbees for Cricket's doghouse at night. And it's still getting into the low fifties, even the forties, at night. He has an arthritic hip from the abuse he suffered before finding his way here, so I heat them up and put them in the layers of his dog bed every night [he's still traumatized to come in and sleep in the house]. But I can't pay for anything unless I bring in some sales. TODAY.

Yeah, I keep saying that we've GOT to make sales now.  Desperately.  I need help; I can't do this alone.

I reaching the point where I don't care anymore. Certainly not last night. I'm just exhausted, and I'm done. Maybe I'll skip all the tests and appointments.  Who wants to be poked and prodded and billed ridiculous amounts for it anyway? Wings can get his done. I can skip mine.  And if I die? Oh, well. I am literally too tired to give a shit right now. that's how I felt then, and I'm not far off that now. If I don't make sales today, I'll skip mine, because we literally have no way to pay for it.

Nothing I have done for the last year has worked. Our sales have tanked, while prices keep going up, and so do our bills, and everybody wants something from me. I don't have anything left. I've put up a bunch of new work lately, including a new pair of extraordinary Skystone earrings the other night, plus something around a dozen other new pairs in the gallery now. There's more to come, including possibly a new cuff soon [he's not satisfied with it currently] and several additional new pairs of simple bezel-set gemstone earrings, plus some small sterling silver hoops, the last probably available later today. But as bad as sales have been, I've lost hope. The rest is just going through the motions, and that might be all I do for the foreseeable, given that I can't get any traction on anything except more pain and more fatigue and more inability to function even minimally.

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (apparently the FlexTape is also the priority now, so I'm told; otherwise, Amazon cards and the filters for the air purifiers [if you need our physical address for the filters, let me know]); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim year, this one already even worse than the last, 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.