He laughed at me. I was meeting him and his wife and some other friends for dinner at the Cracker Barrel. When I got out of my car he saw I was wearing cowboy boots on the outside of my jeans. These were a pair of roper boots, low heel, round toe, made for rough use. I wear them in bad weather or where I might run into any snakes. It’s pretty casual around here. This is Texas. Boots are not uncommon. A cool front had blown in; it was rainy and I didn’t feel sandals were the best choice of footwear that evening. But why so prominently outside my jeans? (In cool weather I wear boots a lot but always covered by my jeans.) Because I had on straight-leg, skinnier jeans and they wouldn’t go over the boot tops. I just didn’t want to take the time to change when I decided to wear boots. So I was asking for it. Maybe you can see the humor in the situation as he and his wife own a cattle ranch. Here was me, looking like some kind of wannabe cowgirl but with no cows. The ranchers and horse trainers around here don’t wear their boots outside their jeans anyway. At least I haven’t seen any. So I did look pretty funny to him. But I took the joking well. I told him, “They call those wearing the big cowboy hats, but with no cows, all hat and no cattle. Well, I’m all boots and no cattle!”
Briefly Speaking 