This is one of those Interesting happenings, and just really kinda cool, and I just wanna share. 
Sitting in a parking lot this evening, killing time and using the stores wifi 
, a lady comes out of the store and loads groceries into a truck in the row in front of me, and gets in it… All the while shes looking in my direction from time to time.. Now, I was sitting there when she went in the store probably ~45 minutes before, and I hadn’t moved since, I figured she just wondered Why The Fudge I was sitting there. She starts her truck and leaves. Then I notice that she drives around that end of the lot twice, circling that row.
Huh.
Drives, back, re-parks where she was, gets out, and walks over, stops in front of the truck and waves, smiles, sorta a motion asking if she could approach my window..
Curiouser, and curiouser, I figure why the heck not?
I smile, and roll my window down… I mean, who wouldn’t want to know whats up at this point?
I figure maybe being friendly and asking I’m I’m alright since i was sitting there a while…
That’s happened before when I sit in the truck someplace and kill time for a while.
Nope, that wasn’t it.
Turns out she’s a photographer, and the way I was sitting there in the truck, head down, sunset behind, sillouetted with the cowboy hat, the light on the truck etc, it just screamed (and I quote, her words, not mine) “Bad @ss Cowboy” to her and it was a photo composition/look that she hated to miss… She asked if she could take my picture, and she promised it wouldn’t show my face(i didn’t care).
Me; speechless. I said sure, as long as she could send me a copy of it…
I figure, if it was anything nefarious she’d have never asked, and would have just taken a pic from her truck… I had to take it at face value and believe what she said.. I’m a give people the benefit of the doubt kinda guy, as often as I can be. Otherwise you go through life scarred of or hating,(or both) everyone..
(only nefarious scheme I can thing of is car theft, having my name, and a pic of the truck, and license #, could find my/the trucks address to steal it later… I’ve heard of this being done. ITs why a lot of us blot out license numbers on forums etc. But with my truck? Its a rusty, rotted, dented, beat up old Ford, which is in fair shape and looks good for what it is, but its NOT the 78 F250 that your gonna go to any trouble to steal… I know, because there are a few Cherried out 70s F series trucks in this town that I’D steal in a heart beat if I had the lack of morals to allow me to do it This isn’t one of them. I love it because its Mine and was Dads, and I grew up with it, but I know what it is compared to others; just another beat up pickup. If I was sitting there is a 78 ‘Vette or something else Expensive and Rare, I’d have wondered a little more than a few seconds on this theory… But I’d have probably still let her take the pic too. )
She didn’t have her camera, this is off of an iPhone(dang! phones have good cameras these days!) She wished she had her camera, and seeing the pic after, so do I… It really is a cool shot(ya, I’d think so even if it wasn’t me in it!)…
I’ve tried to stage such shots before, and never could get it right… Guess those perfect combos of pose and placement/lighting do have to just happen, huh?
Was really flattering for me…
I mean, who the heck is ever gonna want a pic of me? 
And…
I’m no cowboy. Not really. Or anyway not as a direct definition of the word.
Buuuuttt, I wear the had, the boots, and a vest a lot… Its Me… the look and style have become a part of me over the years.
I am western/country through and through, I like being just a “good ole boy”. If I was to be described, I’d Love for it to be “Cowboy” or at least Country in some way(After hopefully nice guy, helpful, and good christian, some of the more important things to be described as IMO..) I’m 50/50 on the bad @ss part, I stopped trying to look or be bad ass years ago, but its cool too.
Don’t get me wrong.
Years ago I stopped giving a beaver structure about what people thing of me, or how they see me… This is just a way I like to see myself.
It was interesting too in a way; she’s from Texas… I mean, if anyone is gonna know the look, its probably gonna be a Texan, right?!
So I got to be seen as just what, in a lot of ways, I’d want to be seen as.
Yeah, its personal image, and image is superficial, and no, I’m not this shallow or vain etc. And I know what people see don’t mean squat for 99% of anything practical or applicable in life… Judging a book by its cover and all that..
But it was still Cool! 
(yeah, I went ahead and edited the license plate out… 
can’t hurt… )
A friend has seen this and pointed out that while I might not geographically or vocationally be a cowboy, he believes what she saw was the attitude, and that I had it in spades in that shot.
Another friend has pointed out that depending on your deffinition of cowboy, I do qualify. I think I do, simly because its a simple expression of who I am. And for the reason he has given, but its Quite A Compliment from him, he says by his deffinition that I Do fully qualify, he posted the code to me as proof…
The Cowboy Code;
1.The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.
2.He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him.
3.He must always tell the truth.
4.He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals.
5.He must not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas.
6.He must help people in distress.
7.He must be a good worker.
8.He must keep himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits.
9.He must respect women, parents, and his nation’s laws.
10.The Cowboy is a patriot.
I’ve seen that before, (thats one version of the cowboy code anyway… there are several, all with the same general jist though) and it is standards I try my best to live by, both as the western code, and also Biblical and general Life concepts, etc..
But for someone else to see it in me… Well… Like I said, QUITE a compliment if he sees that in me, whether you call it Cowboy or not! 
Alaskan, Adventurer, Engineer. 