I've been thinkin'

And when that happens, who knows what might happen? I've have a great wife that I love a whole lot. Sometimes she knows, sometimes she don't. But it's always there. Sometimes I'm a bitch to live with, I've no doubt. Sometimes the opposite is true. And then there are times when I swear, I'm just charming as hell. I like to believe that I'm more charming than not, but that depends on things like work, my sons and their trials and tribulations and such. After all, the buck stops with me. As with a lot of dads, at least the ones that I consider worth their salt, it is my job to handle the dirty work. My lovely wife gets the nice phone calls from college and I get the others. All in all, though, she does much more than I do to raise these guys. My part is just more exciting than washing their clothes and making sure they have the best she can give them to go off to school. Try having three pretty physical guys break out into a full fledged brawl at sixty miles an hour. While I'll admit it has been a while since all three got to travel in close quarters together, I was surprised at the intensity and swinging fists. For maybe the first time, my wife opted against trying to physically intervene. I , on the hand, slammed on the brakes at 60 miles per hour and hit the shoulder skidding in the gravel. Jumping out and yanking the passenger side door open, I start to unravel what appeared to be an octopus made of Cope boys. Arms and legs everywhere with an occasional self flagellation, only to hear one part of the beast telling the other part that his butt was gonna get kicked for that one. Well, mom just paced up and down the roadside while Jacob II, the consummate peacemaker, threatened both of the others into puttin' the chill on. "Are you guys done yet?" I asked as I pried the last hold loose. As they drifted off, I heard one mumble that the other started it.

I thought to myself, "Are we there yet?", only to read a sign that said El Paso - 500 miles. While tranquility returned, and we quietly drove on down the road through the east Texas countryside, I heard Jacob say to his brothers, " I love you."