Hello, friends!
Three weeks into the 2025-2026 school year and I’m still tired. I’ll write more about that in this week’s essay, which is really just a bunch of random thoughts. That’s where I am this week, I guess.
Welcome to the 139th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and the strangeness of grief and loss. If you’re a reader who subscribes via Substack, my website, or Patreon, your encouragement helps motivate me. I’m not breaking any records but I’m thankful to have any audience.
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Very little writing happened this week because of how tired I’ve been. I added round 700 words to Project: Moon and spent what time I had in the evenings devoted to cleaning up The Monster in the Closet, my next novel to be published.
Going back to clean up The Monster in the Closet is allowing me to get to know it again. I really do like this book and I know it’s a favorite amongst some friends. I’m looking forward to you reading it. I’ll talk more about it as we come closer to publication, which I don’t believe it set yet.
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I keep waiting for my body (and energy) to get used to being back to teaching but it hasn’t happened yet. You’d think that by three weeks into the new school year I wouldn’t come home wrecked and feel so tired over the weekends, yet here we are. There’s also just a lot of crap bouncing around the old noggin these days. Some are serious, some aren’t. Some are downright foolish. I thought this week’s essay could be a sampling of some of the thoughts bouncing around like lottery balls.
There’s a wasp flying around the railing on my patio, where I’m sitting to write on this beautiful Saturday afternoon. That fucker’s been hanging out and it scares me. If it comes close to me, I’m grabbing my computer and running. How’s that for random?
I think I need a new computer. The MacBook Air that I got three years ago is good but the memory is already almost eaten.
I should’ve gone with the MacBook Pro but decided to go with the one that cost less money. Now here I am with buyer’s remorse three years later. I love my computer, but I need more power. Unfortunately, I also need tires for the car. This is where it sucks being a grown-up.
I may have a book signing event in a few weeks. I was talking to the store but then suddenly I haven’t heard anything. It’s probably nothing and I’ll reach out again but considering I just got a bunch of books for it, something will happen, one way or another!
I haven’t done as much for my Patreon this year as I’d planned on, mainly because of money but also because of stress. Maybe that’s reversed. Maybe the stress was more of the culprit. Unfortunately, the videos I’d hoped to do and the chapbooks I’d hoped to publish haven’t been done yet and I feel really bad about it. Time and space is needed. I’ll get there. I have some ideas.
There is something I’ve been working on for Patreon, though. I haven’t announced it officially yet but I will soon. This will be cool, I think.
I got the Bruce Springsteen box set Tracks II: The Lost Albums for my birthday but still haven’t listened to any of the albums from it yet. I keep meaning to but never do. What’s up with that? Springsteen’s unreleased and found material is often as good as his priorly released music so I really need to give the albums a listen.
All political and social revolutions begin and end with violence. It’s an ugly truth but it seems to be the way humans work. People don’t like change and will fight it and, inevitably, violence will happen. I’ve been thinking a lot about that when I look around and feel the water boiling in the world around us right now. It scares me. It should scare everybody. But it’s also a part of way things work. Until human beings are as enlightened as the technology they produce, it will be the way.
I was collecting Lego sets for a while but stopped because they’re expensive and I was running out of space in our apartment. There’s one Dream Set I’d love to have but fear I never will. There’s a new runner-up, too. Alas, I will never have them because they’re expensive and huge. But I do miss building the sets. They made me feel calm.
Which reminds me that I need to figure out or find out how to sell some of the Lego sets I have. See paragraph above about a new computer vs. new tires.
My left knee hurts. It’s been hurting a lot lately but last night and today (Saturday, as I write this) it’s hurting pretty constantly. I hope nothing major is wrong with it.
I think about my family and friends sometimes and am surprised by how lucky I am. I feel unworthy of most of them but know that’s just my mind fuckin’ with me. In truth, I feel so, so lucky to have them. I hope I make them proud. Or at least make them laugh. One of those two things, anyway.
I’ve written over 700 words of random thoughts for today. It feels good. Well, mostly good. My knee is hurting so I think I’m going to wrap this up, go inside, and reconnect the computer to the monitor, and begin building and writing the newsletter proper.
Thank you for reading. I’m always grateful for that.
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That’s this week’s newsletter. Thank you so much for subscribing, reading, and for your support.
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Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 
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