At least our raptor relatives showed up.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

Today was bitterly cold, not so much a result of the mercury's location, but the bitter, brutal wind. And of course, we had to be out in it half the day, and my joints are suffering tonight.

Not the way either of us planned to spend this day, which is our wedding anniversary, but there wasn't a choice. I got improperly summonsed for jury duty [to my maiden name, and after the due date], so I had to go get that corrected, which took some doing [NOT because of the woman who had to deal with issue, because she was wonderful; just the way their computer systems (and presumably the state's) share, or more to the point, don't share, information they're supposed to]. Anyway, just so they have everything properly on record, I need to get a new medical excuse, so that's in process, with a telehealth appointment slated later this week, but it required a trip to the doctor's office today to figure out with their admin people what needs to be done, and that was more standing, and more pain. [I can't sit more than a half-hour at a time, or stand for any length of time, and of course I have to be masked and distance, and there are a bunch of other autoimmune issues that make it impossible. The court doesn't want me there, believe me.] At least our raptor relatives showed up today: up there in the photo this morning, two or three of them circling overhead as we drove home, and then again at sunset.

But all of that, plus a couple of other related things, ate up much of the day, and also meant that I did a lot more walking/standing on hard surfaces than my joints would like. So tomorrow will be catching up on things I had planned but couldn't get to today. We don't eat out anymore, because pandemic[s], but most years we get take-out for dinner, and we didn't even have time for that. We did swing through the Wendy's drive-thru on the way home to get something that might pass for lunch, because I had not been able to eat anything yet today at that point. Tonight will be tacos and Monday Night Football, and that will be fine. 

But the cold is an issue here, and it's why some of us are doing the work we're doing [although in my case, it's mostly from home and online; other folks are doing the harder stuff out in the streets]. As I said, some of us met on Saturday to try to figure out where we could put a dent in this mess. This was very introductory, but that was the point: figuring out what exists [very little] and what doesn't [nearly everything] and where we might be able to fill in a few of those gaps. I'll have more info in the days and weeks to come, but for now?  Go here, buy something, or several somethings, off the outreach group's wishlist, and you will literally be saving a life, probably more than one. It's not really possible to overstate how bad it is out there, nor how great the need is. I've sorted it in their Priority order, but they've given out so much stuff this week that they now have new priorities: hand warmers, snacks, tarps, duct tape, the safety stuff like flashlights and pepper spray; they also need large-size men's stuff, socks, and large- and extra-large-size dog stuff, like collars and harnesses and dog coats, further down on the list.

And then there's my own actual work. WE NEED SALES. As always at this time of year, I'm already putting in 12- to 16-hour days every day, 7 days a week, because the work won't wait, and for us, being able to help anyone else starts with us making those sales, of course. But beyond that? I also am finding myself unexpectedly under the gun on another front; besides needing to bring in enough in seasonal sales to repay a big chunk on our '24 taxes, the election has made the need to replace my laptop NOW absolutely mandatory, before the end of the year, because the price, already hellish for the one I need, will skyrocket at the first of the year. So if you're contemplating buying? Now would be a really, really good time. Our laptop is our whole work, everything, and it fails me on the daily now.

Today's feature is a photo, so the most I can really do is match color or animating spirit. The image, shown here, reminds me of the shimmering beauty of Labradorite and the satiny iridescence of gray moonstone. So for today's inventory selections, four pairs of earrings, two Labradorite and two gray moonstone, all of them absolutely gorgeous:

• "The Moon Rests On a Blanket of Stars," a big, bold, old-school design in tribute to the Four Sacred Directions, set here with highly domed Labradorite cabs whose flash picks up the blues and golds of the photo, here;
• "All the Blue Moons," old-style oval conchas with freehand radiant motifs and highly domed Labradorite cabs at the center with incredible blue flash, here;
• "Held In the Light," a vintage-style adaptation of the naja-like crescent, set with shimmering gray moonstones that have a LOT of color shift, here; and
• "Little Winter Moons," a traditional radiant Eye of Spirit style, and my personal favorite, saw-cut, scored, and stamped freehand, with those absolutely ethereal gray moonstones at the center, here.

There's more on the way very soon; he's got something like four more cuffs [an incredible one posted here yesterday], a couple of pendants, several new pairs of earrings [again, one, a small tiger iron pair, done yesterday and slated to go up by tonight, really, this time], and eventually all the new coils he'll need for holiday inventory. And I need to sell them all, because I still need to make sales weekly for us to catch up on the year and cover all the stuff still in the pipeline that needs covering [laptop, roof next year, more medical, always prepaid taxes, etc.]. So: GO BUY! Links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (Priority is the liquid soaps and Amazon cards, probably most useful at this point); 
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

After such a grim year, this one already far worse than the last, we really need to get what's left of 2024 onto a better footing before it ends, 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.