My Life As A Hobby

Fall is a wonderful time of year. It’s when October rolls around and the days start getting a little cooler and a little shorter. It’s a time when everyone thinks of those things we associate with autumn. Pumpkin patch festivals. Leaves changing into beautiful colors. College football. Even pumpkin spice lattes. And of course, let’s not forget little girls playing softball tournaments. As a devoted grandfather, I recently performed my grandparental duties and attended one of my little darlings’ final softball tournaments of the year. Holy crap. There were more tents at this place than you’d see on the Quad during Homecoming weekend in Tuscaloosa. Hundreds of parents, grandparents, siblings, and assorted relatives were camped out in folding chairs, huddled under blankets, and preparing for what appeared to be an upcoming military operation. The festivities began around 9 a.m. and were scheduled to conclude sometime around 3 a.m. the following morning -  assuming the champion...

  The phone rang in my office at 8:01 a.m.  I didn’t even have a cup of coffee yet.  That wasn’t unusual. In the brokerage business, things got started early and moved fast.  I recognized the number immediately. It was my largest account, which usually meant one of two things. Either somebody needed my help, or I had a problem. Quite often, those were the same thing. I picked up the phone and answered in the clipped, professional tone we were expected to use. “Joe Hobby.” It was George, a senior buyer. More often than not, an early call meant I needed to bail him out of some kind of trouble. Not this time. George had a question concerning my other occupation - stand-up comedy. Without so much as a greeting, he fired off a question. “Hey, what did you do to make James Gregory mad?”  James Gregory was one of the biggest comedy acts in the South. And he was a superstar in Birmingham, Alabama.  “Huh? What do you mean?”  “Well, he was just on a...

I’m not going to lie to you. I’m pissed off. There are probably more eloquent ways to describe my current state of mind, but none of them seem quite as accurate. I’ve been told that Amazon isn’t as user-friendly as it used to be. That’s a little like saying Iran isn’t the most woman-friendly country in the Middle East. It may be uncomfortable to say, but it damn sure is the truth. Let me explain. I’ve written a book called Some Things Are Worth Remembering . Not just a few pages stapled together, but an honest-to-goodness book. Forty-four stories about growing up, the mistakes I made, and the lessons I learned along the way. I spent a couple of years writing it, rewriting it, editing it, and trying to make it the best it could possibly be. I had it professionally printed. The printer did a marvelous job. The manuscript and cover were converted into PDF files. I bought my own ISBN, which, for those unfamiliar with publishing, is a bunch of numbers that identifies your book and ...