I'm kinda likin' this empty nest....

My husband thinks he's on vacation. Yes, he wakes up with the chickens (5 a.m.), exercises, reads his Bible, showers and leaves for work. The man should have been a Marine. He keeps telling me that it feels like we're waking up in a Bed and Breakfast. Funny thing, I can't ever get him to stay in a B&B when we go on our annual anniversary trip. We did that a couple of times and it didn't turn out so well for him. One time, there were some, well, very creepy people who were the owners and we felt a little uncomfortable sleeping in the room below them. Not explaining anything more about that. Then another time, we stayed in a beautiful Victorian B&B and found ourselves eating breakfast with a whole table of vocal and opinionated people from the opposite political persuasion. I found that fun and interesting, but I looked over at Ken and his eggs didn't seem to be digesting very well. He's a very tough dude, but doesn't in actuality like confrontation of any kind. Not to say that he hasn't had a few confrontations in his lifetime. He's had a few....and I'm going to tell you, if you happen to be a part of said confrontation.... not good. Because you are not going to win (unless you are me, of course).  This reminds me of an epic confrontation that happened to our family one year at Six Flags....

We had been waiting in line for some river ride for over two hours. It was hot, everybody was tired, but we were almost there. Our whole family was in line and about to go up a set of stairs to the landing where you got on the boats. Just then, two twenty-something-year-old-looking thugs jumped in front of us in line. I panicked, but then acted like I didn't see them. Not Ken. He leans across the two dudes, pushes them back with his well-muscled arm, and says, "Come on Rosie. Come on kids" as we file past the miscreants. Not leaving well enough alone, Ken announces to the crowd, in a very (very) loud voice, "I don't know about you people, but these guys just broke in line. I've been waiting two hours. My family and I aren't putting up with this." He turned and smiled at them while several more people filed past the criminals. They still were able to slip in front of a family, a few people back. I was  in shock at the amazing audacity of my husband to stand up to these guys. 

We got on the boat and had our (very fun) ride. When we hauled our soaking-wet selves out of the boat, park security was waiting for us. They asked us if we wanted to press charges against those creeps....because they had assaulted us. We were going, "What?!" And then Jesse pipes up and says, "Oh yeah, they threw a handful of money when we got on the boat....and it cut a place in my head." Sure enough, he had a little slice in his head that was bleeding slightly. I couldn't believe he hadn't said a word until then...

We ended up not pressing charges but asked security if they would throw those guys out so we wouldn't have to worry about them for the rest of the day. Jesse was grinning and enjoying his five minutes of notoriety. We were assured that they would be thrown out. 

I am still in shock. Sometimes I think we might die from some random confrontation like this someday, but I can bet it'd take about 30 rounds to get Ken Norton down.....