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    Uncomfortably Numb
    Uncomfortably Numb
    Uncomfortably Numb
    Ebook108 pages1 hour

    Uncomfortably Numb

    By R. Hartley Hammond

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A weary, middle-aged professional, risks it all resulting in an unexpected journey.

    Author Richard Hammond does not like to live in the past. Instead, he is a here-and-now kind of guy who tries to stay optimistic, even during the darkest times. Always one to embrace change and take risks, Richard takes stock of his life and shares what he has learned with others. This is the story of his adventurous journey through life, his takeaway lessons, and how he taught himself to look beyond the confines of his own reality in order to reach for the stars.

    As Hammond shares the poignant, sometimes humorous story of his life to date, he provides a glimpse into the after-effects of the 2008 financial crisis that caused him to make an unforeseen move from working a lucrative job in corporate America to cleaning dog kennels. With a tongue-in-cheek style, Hammond details how his life slowly disintegrated from days filled with mental stimulation to days filled with trips to Walmart and caring for his ailing mother.

    As he contemplates his uncertain future, Hammond reminisces about his childhood innocence, his coming-of-age journey into adulthood, and how he ended up on a road heading in the wrong direction. Uncomfortably Numb is the story of one mans walk through an unpredictable existence where he soon discovers that no one can recreate the second chapter in his life but him.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateJun 21, 2012
    ISBN9781475929775
    Uncomfortably Numb
    Author

    R. Hartley Hammond

    Richard Hartley Hammond is the creator, writer, executive producer of a reality television concept and pilot teaser titled Early Bird Special. Richard resides in San Diego, California, where he enjoys creating, inspiring, and sharing stories about real people and real life. This is his first book.

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      Book preview

      Uncomfortably Numb - R. Hartley Hammond

      Copyright © 2012 by R. Hartley Hammond

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      iUniverse

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.iuniverse.com

      1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Cover Art by Bob Fikejs, www.bobfikejsphotography.com

      Edited by Andrea Glass, www.WritersWay.com

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-2865-5 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-2866-2 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4759-2977-5 (e)

      iUniverse rev. date: 06/07/2012

      Contents

      Preface

      1 A New Reality

      2 The Genesis

      3 Upwardly Mobile Jerks

      4 The Escape

      5 Land Of Hollywood

      6 The Tsunami

      7 Living In The Now

      About the cover

      A special thanks to…

      Appendix

      9781475929775_TXT.pdf9781475929775_TXT.pdf

      Preface

      As I approach my fiftieth birthday, it seems natural to want to take a look back at the first half of my life. Generally, I’m not a live-in-the-past kind of cat. I’m much more the kind of guy who lives in the here and now and staying optimistic even if things look pretty dark. But when you hit fifty, something clicks in your head and you do tend to take stock of what, in essense, is a short life here on this third rock from the sun.

      A lot has happened in my first fifty years, some of it good and some of it not so good. I suppose most everyone my age can say that, and I think that’s what makes us all human. We share the same big-picture events in life, like being born, loving, working, dreaming, and just trying to be happy, and one of them is writing this book. Dreams can be life affirming. They can give us hope when the going gets tough. They can also make us take big risks. Not so long ago, I took a big one. I’m a gambler and I like to take risks. Sometimes pursuing a dream works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. But I like to think those of us who actually get out there and go for it are a little better off than those who don’t, even if failure smacks us upside the head.

      Like many Americans, since the financial crash in 2008, I’ve had a difficult time. Some of that was my fault. For instance, I didn’t have to quit my job a month after the meltdown began, chucking a six-figure gig in IT in November 2008 to go make a reality TV show I hoped to sell which would launch me into the world of Hollywood. But I did just that, and I lost big because of my decision. Yet, deep down, I’m glad I had the guts to go for the gold, to stand up and take control of my life instead of wasting it in a veal-fattening prison inside a corporate cube farm. There are rewards even in failure, I think. The winners in this life aren’t afraid of failing, and when they do get knocked down, they dust themselves off and get back up again. I suppose that’s the essence of the story I’m telling in these pages, and I hope as you read you’ll shake your head in disbelief, share a little empathy with me, and perhaps, just perhaps, feel inspired to look beyond the confines of your own reality to see if there’s something you can do to branch out and reach for the stars.

      Don’t ever be afraid to dream. It’s one of the most cherished facets of life itself, that and the hope it instills in the dreamer. Without hope there’s nothing.

      The following is a snapshot of one of many stories I appreciate and have enjoyed in Steven Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

      There was a man and his two children sitting in the back of a subway train not far from where Steven was during one of his many business trips. The children were loud and obnoxious and to all of those within an ear’s range of this noisy activity, it seemed as if the father had no intentions of disciplining them. As time slipped on by and after many dirty looks from the surrounding passengers, Steven decided to go and talk to the man since he seemed to be oblivious to the whole situation. Steven kindly asked the father why he had not taken any action to discipline his children, and the father looked up at him with a blank look on his face and said that the children had just lost their mother that day and he simply could not muster up the energy to do anything about it. Steven was quickly taken aback by the response of this gentleman and became immediately empathetic.

      Many in my circle thought I was off my rocker for the choices and chances I took in 2008 and 2009 and unfortunately, didn’t understand what was driving me from deep down within.

      But that’s OK…

      1

      A New Reality

      I’ve just closed my eyes again, climbed aboard the Dreamweaver train, tryin’ to take away my worries of today and leave tomorrow behind.

      ~ Gary Wright

      The birds in my mother’s backyard greeted the day with annoying perkiness. Twitter, twitter, chirp, peep! There they go again, I thought as I opened my eyes, stared up at the ceiling of the guest room that was now mine on a quasi-permanent basis, and pushed the sheet and blanket off in no particular hurry to do anything except take a leak. It was a typical Monday for me back in the dark days of summer in 2010 when it seemed my entire world had been turned inside out and I was left wondering what the hell happened to rocket me from a good-paying job I hated into the realm of a senior citizens community replete with funny, odd, pathetic, courageous, and downright peculiar residents. I wasn’t obligated to anything or anyone, except my ailing mom—pretty much zero responsibility for the day. I was as free as the birds outside my window, or at least that’s what I told myself as I did my business in the bathroom and then splashed cold water on my face to chase the sandman away.

      I loped out of the can and took a long look around my room, realizing that the clothes I’d worn the previous night smelled of alcohol and medical marijuana, which is legal here in sunny California if you get a doctor’s note. It’s really easy to get the green light for the tasty bud from a local doc, and in my case I scored by telling the dude I was stressed and depressed. That was no lie, man. I was damned depressed at the time, and I figured a toke or two or twenty would brighten an otherwise dismal day. I yawned and casually focused on the family pictures hanging on the wall, reminded of a life long, long ago. Everyone was smiling in the pictures. Nobody seemed to have a care in the world. My eyes settled on the hat rack on another wall that Mom uses to display her prized jewelry and her hat collection.

      What am I doing here? What the hell?

      Back before the 2008 financial crash, my marriage to Lori was good, the national economy was humming right along, and upwardly mobile jerks like me thought they had life by the short hairs. My wife and I had an awesome townhome and an even more awesome love shack of a bedroom with a king-size bed from the Pottery Barn as a centerpiece. Every morning my beautiful lady and I awoke in the bliss of matrimony and predictable lives and pushed

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