Furry man rides shotgun

As you can see, it's been a quiet week here at Written Inc. For some odd reason, the days have seemed more stuffed with things to do. More words to write, meetings to have, calls to make.

In the middle of it all, my daughter needed a lift to an after-school program. Nothing out of the ordinary or otherwise different than any other dad's-taxi run on any other day. But on this day, I suspected she needed a little happy, an otherwise-illogical reason to smile amid her own week of compounding end-of-school-year pressures.

So as I headed out the door, I asked our dog, Frasier, if he wanted to go for a ride in the car. Now, it may seem silly to speak to dogs, but ours knows a surprising number of words, including walk, treats, his name, and car. I barely got past the hard c sound and he was already at the front door, rear end wiggling uncontrollably, abbreviated whining noises coming from the other end. Frasier doesn't do subtle.

This pic is of him settling in for the ride, my ever-reliable wingman craning his neck in every direction as he wonders how he'll stick his head out the open sunroof far above. Sorry, kiddo, not on my watch.

When we met up with Dahlia, the smile was worth the small amount of residual drool on the seat. Her best, furry friend was along for the ride. And for at least the next 15 minutes, nothing else mattered.