So far beyond tired there aren't words for it.

Photo copyright Aji, 2024; all rights reserved.

This day, I swear.

I didn't even go to bed until well after midnight, and despite being exhausted, my autoimmune disease decided it was on some bullshit again, and I got exactly zero sleep all night. Pain, yes, but more than that, just the fuckery that these diseases inflict on my brain, shutting down all capacity for sleep when it's the one thing my body needs most. I finally gave up somewhere before five, got up in the dark, let the dogs out and made fires, and I've been up ever since. I am so far beyond tired there aren't words for it.

I got the NDN Silver post written during that period, but I needed the pair photo, and by the time that was done, we had to get out of here for everything else. So much for not going anywhere this week.

And so much for the forecast, which has given us a tiny bit of sleet and nothing more, just bitter winds and damp that make the too-warm conditions actually seem ridiculously cold now.

As I said yesterday, I have some things in the works that I'm was going to be asking people to help with with regard to our local population of unhoused/unsheltered folks [and their animals]. This is supposed to be the week for gratitude, so it would involve asking folks to put their money where their mouths are, quite literally. Not gigantic amounts; just enough to cover 100 shower passes and 30 hot meals, plus some kit-bag stuff to keep on hand to give to folks as we encounter them. The kind of money that can be raised in $10 increments, but enough that would be $300 for the shower passes and $350 for the meals.

And y'all did me one better: We raised just shy of $700 in under an hour Monday night, thanks to several of y'all. We shocked the folks at the diner, who were SO pleased.  We made up the difference and purchased 35 meals instead of 30. Then we bought the shower passes, and apparently they reduce the price if you buy them in increments of 10 or more, so I think we got 150 instead of 100 for the $300 raised. That one involves more work for me; I have to create the passes using the number they assigned me, but hopefully I can do that over the long weekend. And we also met up with outreach campaign's founder, who stocked us up with what I think is the last small pup tent, some tarps, some mylar blankets, hand-warmers, socks, gloves, hats, some dog food, and snacks to distribute as we encounter folks who need them.

But all this needs doing because the housing crisis worsens daily here. On that note, also 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, two-person tents [only $22 each! and they've given out all the existing tents already], 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 normally one of Wings's larger items, but this week, it's a pair of them. It's a necklace [here] and a cuff [here] that were created half a year apart, without any thought of them matching, but they do, and it's clear that they really belong together. The former is built around a spectacular ultra-high-grade turquoise cabochon, ringed with an "overlay" of very old tiny polished nuggets from Wings's private collection; the latter is a big, bold band with nuggets from that same old parcel "overlaid," again, all across the very center. So, for today's features, it's accessories to match, including the single buckle, and the equally solitary belt, in current inventory:

• "Illuminating Skies,"  is the concha belt, and absolutely extraordinary masterwork featuring 25 separate conchas [12 classic oval conchas set with Skystones; 13 solid silver old-style butterfly conchas] plus the buckle, all the work freehand and absolutely perfectly matched; sterling silver; old natural turquoise, likely Montezuma [buckle] and Royston [conchas], and hardened brown-black leather, here;
• "From the Heart of the Sky," a bog, bold, beautifully tailored rectangular buckle, all freehand scorework and stampwork, including repoussé work in sterling silver, around a giant oval of what we believe to be old Sleeping Beauty turquoise, a soft sky blue with quartz matrix, here;
• "Orbital Resonances," a compact but absolutely stellar bolo and my own personal favorite, with phenomenal freehand stampwork embracing an old round highly domed focal cabochon; sterling silver, old blue-green spiderweb turquoise that we believe to be Royston or Montezuma, and braided brown-black leather, here; and
• "The Night Serpent," a larger, more elaborate bolo with similarly freehand saw-cut, scallop, score- and stampwork in concentric rings on the sterling silver face, around a freeform focal of what is not turquoise, but very nearly a Skystone all the same: New Lander's ultra-high-grade Royal Web variscite in ivory and indigo, the whole on braided brown-black leather, here.

There's more on the way very soon; he's got something like four more cuffs [one hopefully going up tonight, and it's incredible, with a stone like pure foxfire; another with old green turquoise in an electric shade], 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, or not, depending on how long I last tonight], 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.