I started up my Chevy and set out to get the mail. I drive my Silverado every noontime without fail.
\nOur black mailbox, just off the road, a half a mile away, sets on a row of mailboxes where the neighbors drive each day.
\nI hadn\u2019t left the driveway. She was waving me on down. My wife asked, \u201cCan I go along and later drive to town?\u201d
\nThere ain\u2019t no way resisting an invitation from my gal. She\u2019d be riding shotgun next to me. She\u2019s more than just my pal.
\nBut then I saw Miss Daisy. She\u2019s our Labrador plus Poodle. I understand the proper name is simply Labradoodle.
\nShotgun is Miss Daisy\u2019s seat whenever she\u2019s with me. I wondered who would win the spot. I couldn\u2019t wait to see.
\nI reached across the seat and opened up the shotgun door. But I couldn\u2019t see Miss Daisy or my wife there anymore.
\nDid I really hear the tailgate slamming down on my old truck? They climbed back in the cargo bed. This had to be bad luck!
\nSo, there I sat behind the wheel, I felt just like a fool. Who says your wife rides shotgun is the one unbroken rule. `
\nI hollered back and asked her, \u201cSo, no shotgun for my wife?\u201d She said, \u201cI\u2019ll ride in back with Daisy, the love of my whole life.\u201d
\nI\u2019d been replaced by Daisy and with that you can be sure, a demotion to Miss Daisy\u2019s own personal chauffeur.
\nWould nosey drivers look at us? Say, \u201cThey\u2019ve been in a fight.\u201d If so, I figured they would be the Gladys Kravitz type.
\nWell, sure enough my cell phone buzzed while texts came flying in. The gossip traveled faster than the juiciest of sin.
\nOne text, now from an ex-friend, to be certain that I\u2019ll save, said, \u201cIf your father knew, he would roll over in his grave.\u201d
\nMy wife was laughing, near to tears, what she and Daisy caused. A case of misconception. A dose of daily flaws.
\nSo, no matter what you\u2019re doing when your wife and dog step in. Just take a breath and suck it up. \u2018Cuz cowboy, you can\u2019t win.
\n\u2013 Bryce Angell<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I started up my Chevy and set out to get the mail. I drive my Silverado every noontime without fail. Our black mailbox, just off the road, a half a mile away, sets on a row of mailboxes where the neighbors drive each day. I hadn\u2019t left the driveway. She was waving me on down. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":479,"featured_media":20768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cowboy-poetry","8":"category-commentary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23095,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23094\/revisions\/23095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}