The Weekly Digest is a weekly (no shit?) update that captures all the topics that aren’t worthy of their own post. This may be too long for email so make sure you click through.
Air Masks in a Nosedive
Self-diagnosing and then talking about your self-diagnosis is gauche, but here we are. I used to think I was bi-polar back when they still called it that. I didn’t start on SSRIs until my late 30s, so I went through my entire “invincible” phase unmedicated. I made jokes about joining the 27 Club until I turned 28.
Monday hit me like a truck. It marked the end of an incredibly productive, high-energy phase. If you were on Substack for the last couple weeks, you probably couldn’t avoid me (sorry). Of course, what goes up must come down. As I’m getting older, my meat-and-bone-suit starts breaking down significantly if I don’t proactively address issues with its operating system (my brain). I try to extend those productive stretches by delaying sleep, letting little healthy habits slide, and leaning on substances and stimuli to keep it going. I’ll put more work on my plate so that I don’t have a choice but to keep going. It’s like putting on the air mask when the plane is in freefall and expecting to survive the crash.
I went to bed at 9pm on Monday. And then again on Tuesday. I got back to journaling (on paper) instead of turning my every thought into a Substack Note1. I backburnered my writing; not ideal, but this is easily the most cognitively demanding task I have.
Wednesday I took my older dog to the vet for some follow-up bloodwork. He’s got some elevated liver enzymes that may mean liver disease or Cushing’s disease, but he’s got no other symptoms, so I have no idea what to do there. Thursday I went to the chiropractor. It had been a while since I’d been in for an adjustment. He cracked me so good that I developed a debilitating migraine.
In my day job, I do operational readiness consulting. And outside of making PowerPoints and spreadsheets, that means a lot of my job is understanding incoming risks and throttling/adjusting our team’s focus accordingly. It’s a skillset that would behoove me to carry over into my “real life.”
All this to say: if you saw less of me this week, it’s because I’m trying to pull myself out of a nosedive before I crash into the ground.
Book Bits
Substack Summer rolls on. I’ve got three wildly different books on the desk right now:
No Dogs in Philly by
Shieldbreaker Book One by
Victim by
I’m working this triple threat in now because I think of all the books I have left these 3 are probably the most stylistically distinct from each other. It also helps that No Dogs is an ebook, I have a hardcopy of Shieldbreaker and I have a hardcopy and audiobook of Victim. That also helps keep any bleed-over to a minimum.
Is this related to the bit about burning myself out that I wrote about above? No, of course not. Why would you even ask that?
If you’d like to know more about the Substack Summer, look no further:
The Contortionist’s Handbook by — I really enjoyed this one, and I want to say more about it, but I am a fried egg of a person right now. I keep thinking about this book, especially as it relates to themes of identity that also run through Victim, The Wayback Machine, and Cubafruit. I immediately wanted to re-read this, but I’ve packed my plate full as it is. Great book, great voice.
Substack Spotlight:
This week
over at knocked me on my fucking ass with “It Was Never About the Jacket.”“Did you ever think we were just playing with fire? Burning ourselves trying to save a ghost?”
“No,” the other whispered. “I thought we were building something—fragile, sure, but real. Even if it was just a house of cards.”
“Fragile,” he repeated. The word hung in the air, a brittle thing waiting to shatter.
Recent Book Haul:
Hey, Vin, do you really buy this many damn books? Sadly, yes, internal monologue that keeps misnaming me. The personal library is now approaching 500 books.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson
The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke
Shout-out to
who I think is the one who rec’d this
Twilight by William Gay
William Gay and Cormac McCarthy are two authors I try to read everything by. It’s just a sense that there is something there in their writing that will open up some new window for me.
Miaow by Benito Perez Galdos
Writing
Tallboys #2 went up over the weekend. A huge thank you to everyone/anyone who read it, signal boosted it, or commented on it. I really appreciate all that y’all do for me. TB #3 is in process, but I’ve got to work through some of the different branching for this one. This where I want to start weaving the threads between the stories the narrator is telling.
Miscellany
My in-laws bought a swingset for Kiddo that arrived (unexpectedly) on Tuesday. Next week, we’re taking everyone but the cat to Maine to visit my folks for July 4th. Did I mention I was busy?
Return Segment: Proud Wife-Guy Moment
This week Mrs. Reads soft-launched her mini-bakery out of that (fucking) shed that I built, and it was a big success. She sold out of cookies2 and sold most of the sourdough loaves and cheddar + jalapeño loaves. She got a lot of good reviews, too, and people taking pictures of my her adorable little bakery shed. Kiddo also got to meet a puppy, so it was a big week at the Reads Estate.
As a reminder: mini-book clubs for each of the Substack Summer books are in my subscribers’ Chat.
That’ll do ya for this week. Wish me luck with this tailspin. 🤙
— V
I am exceedingly thankful for all the support I’ve gotten on Substack, including new followers and subscribers. I became a little addicted to the dopamine hit of likes and restacks which just exacerbated this cycle.
Which I’m BULLSHIT about.
I’m gonna have to check out this William Gay fellow if you’re putting him up there with McCarthy
Have a great time with Thompson. He’s my boy