Up until 4:00 downloading and checking out new iPhone aps.  The new 2.0 software upgrade allows for them.

Ate some cereal then mowed.  Usually lately Amanda and I have put the priority on getting to the beach on weekends.  We’ve done that a little too much this summer though, and we’ve got weeds in the front yard taller than my knees.

We did get to the beach though, and there were some big waves.  Mike "Lars" and Kaitlyn Boscaljon were out there already.  Mike ended up not going out in the water with his new (new to him, I mean) board.  He needed a longer one than the one he got, due to his height.  Anyway, I had a hard time getting out in the water too and had a couple nice big wipeouts.

Michael joined us on the beach.  Amanda and I had gone inside to the Frazelle house for a bit and went back out when he got there.

I went out again with Barry- he said he was impressed I took some of the waves I attempted.  I was able to ride one in, but I just didn’t have the energy to go back out.  Barry suggested I try a shorter board so I can get past the waves that keep breaking on me and preventing me from getting back out.

Amanda went for a walk with Anna leaving me and Michael to hang out.  We went in the water for a bit to let the waves beat us up then just sat and talked for a while until a girl went by, followed by a largish guy who was walking aggressively and hurling expletives at her.  We and a few other people took note.  I picked up my phone in case any authorities needed calling and sat up on my haunches.  Sometimes the girl would make a move toward the guy and he’d jump back as though she were trying to stick him with a hot poker.  As the guy got more and more aggressive I stood up, as did a guy a little to my left.  The girl finally sat down on the sand and hugged her knees and the other guy, who would later introduce himself to me as Randy, started walking over to I did too.

Randy, a Navajo, started talking to the guy and I asked the girl if everything was okay and if we needed to call someone.  The big guy, and by big I mean he was tall and stocky with a bit of a belly and a nerdish look, had a drink of some sort in his hand and kept taking his sunglasses on and putting them back on as Randy kept suggesting he leave the girl alone and walk away.  The way he was doing that along with the smirking grin emanated more hostility, so Michael walked up as well.

Somehow Randy and I switched and I started talking to the guy.  He said he felt like an ass and understood where we were all coming from and that normally he’d be the one in our positions.  I told him it looked like he’d had too much to drink and that he should just walk in back down the beach and let things cool off.  He kept getting defensive and I think implied that everything was the girl’s fault, but I pointed out that he was the one he was aggressively stalking after this small chick and yelling f-bombs all at her.

By this time, Jon, a friend of Hannah’s who’d been out surfing, had joined our little group.  I figured that me and Randy could probably have taken the guy, but we’re both pretty small.  I think with the addition of Michael, thin though he may be, would have sufficed.  Jon is really thin but has a surfer’s broad shoulders, so I didn’t like the drunk guy’s chances at that point, should he have tried to do anything then.  Anna and Amanda had walked up before all was said and done, but neither of them is over 5’2" and they hardly weigh 200 pounds combined.  Not that I’d have expected them to do anything but call someone or run for more help, but Anna’s also got that back she broke and Amanda, though feisty at times, is particularly not strong.

It all diffused though.  The guy walked back down the beach and the girl walked back too.  They were talking again later, but Randy said it looked like they were okay.  (I could vaguely make out their forms, but with my eyesight seeing from public access 39 all the way to The Oceanic pier is a bit of a chore.)

So that’s how I became the self-proclaimed hero of Wrightsville Beach.  Not that I actually did anything, and I did end up following Randy’s lead, but I was about to the point of going over and starting a conversation myself.

Anna and Barry had invited me, Amanda and Michael to stay for dinner so we did.  While Anna was preparing it I looked up and was reading Chuck Norris facts from a website.  Some examples off the top of my head:

Chuck Norris counted to infinity.  Twice.

Chuck Norris doesn’t need a watch.  He decides what time it is.

Chuck Norris is so fast he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.

Chuck Norris invented the C-section when he roundhouse kicked his way out of his mother’s womb.

After dinner, which was very delish, thank you, Anna, we spent some time looking up YouTube videos.  Barry introduced us to the band MGMT and I borrowed the CD.

I forgot to mention that someone had used my rash guard this morning.  I had last used it on Wednesday and I washed it off and wrung it out and left it in the shower stall.  I forgot to tell Barry that I’d left it, so it stayed out there.  Well this morning not only was it wet from someone having used it, but it smelled funny, like someone had used it, and there were streaks of something down one side of it that looked like it might have been blood.  My own fault for leaving it of course, but it sucks that someone got or spilled something on my rash guard.  If anyone’s blood is going to be on that thing it should be my own.

I tried washing it by hand with Shout and then soap but it didn’t seem to do much.  Amanda went ahead and threw it in the washer with Michael’s clothes and made sure to not let it go in the dryer.

Barry told me from now on I could wring it out after washing it and hang it up inside the garage.

Michael came by after dinner to wash some clothes, which I hinted at.  Amanda went upstairs to bed while I dozed and watched some of the end of Disturbia with Michael.

Zach Dotsey
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