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Tumbleweeds are one feature of West Texas living that vastly contrast life in Northwest Arkansas. When I was living out here for grad school, they used to pile up in our fenced-in back yard at our duplex. It always amazed me how those suckers could fly up over the top of a 7-ft. fence and take up residence in our cozy backyard.
But, it's just part of living out here. They really don't cause any great harm to me. I actually find them amusing. It's like they're actual breathing creatures that roam the prairie. Each tumbleweed takes on its own personality and shape. Some are light colored. Some are dark. And when the wind blows, you get a lot more up close and personal with them.
This past week, I took on a freelance photography job that took me to Seminole and across the New Mexico border near Portales. While the jobs were to take photographs of people, I couldn't pass up the chance to take a few "side shots" on my drive.
Last Thursday a front came through. Out here, we call them "blue northers" because on the horizon, the front takes on a deep blue color and you can see them coming for a while.
Ahead of this front were 40 mph winds that blew consistently. Again, this is not a big deal out here, but for commentary purposes I thought I should mention the fact.
Tumbleweeds roamed freely that day - taking on animal-like characteristics as they "ran" across the road in front of me. Some traveled alone, while others traveled in large clumps. I will call this a tumbleweed herd.
I hit one "herd" head on and ended up taking it 50 miles back to Lubbock with me. It wedged itself rather tightly in my grill guard and got a lift into the Hub City.
Monday, I got up at the buttcrack of dawn and drove toward New Mexico. The photography appointment had been set for 8am, but I forgot that once you cross the state line, you gain an hour. So, when I was 15 minutes out from my destination, I gave a courtesy call to announce my arrival only to find out that it was only 6:45am there...
So, I got up at 5am for nothing. But, one perk of working in agriculture is you never meet a stranger. I'd never met these people before in my life, but they invited me in, fed me a homecooked breakfast, and then we proceeded outdoors to take the pictures.
As in most road trips, I found things along my journey that morning to amuse myself with, such as deer on the side of the road.
When the morning light hits the prairie, it's a sight to behold. Everything is golden. It may appear as dry nothingness, but it really holds a charisma all its own, especially in the early morning.
Now, back to the tumbleweeds. Fencelines are highly decorated with tumbleweeds, much like a salvage yard is decorated with cars that will never reach another destination on their own. The tumbleweeds are carelessly bouncing along the prairie when suddenly they're caught in a trap.
Their only hope for escape is for the wind to shift, which will likely reduce the size of the tumbleweed as part of it remains stuck in the fence.
Oh, what a tragic life tumbleweeds lead. 
A few weeks ago, I journeyed by plane to meet a group from the homeland in Dallas.They were making their annual pilgrimage to the shopping/junk mecca of East Texas...and the southern United States for that matter.
Experienced shoppers push around carts to hold their purchased loot. I've always been anti-cart and anti-purse, so I just mooch off of other people's carts and purses. It works well for me.
You can buy just about anything in Canton at the world's largest flea market/trade days thingy. I don't really know what the official name of it is, but it's big. It's 200 acres of objects, things and stuff. 
Including soup and dip mixes. Soup is on the left, dip is on the right. HAHA, I crack myself up.Like I said, you see a little bit of everything here.
Perhaps the most intriguing thing about the Canton Trade Days/Flea Market Extravaganza is the obvious social divider that exists there. The divider is essentially a creek - in true flea market fashion.
On one side of the creek exists aisles and aisles of shopping opportunities for finely made items, such as furniture, clothing, holiday decor, guitars, baked potatoes, candles, etc.
On the other side of the creek, there's basically aisles and aisles of crap no one uses anymore, such as 1964 LIFE magazines, army clothes, beer signs, sweaty cowboy hats, stolen road signs, empty Coca-Cola bottles, etc. You see things like this:
And this:
This is a man too lazy to walk, so he's catching a ride on a self-made trailer with a metal folding chair while being pulled by his presumed wife on a motorized cart. This was obviously my favorite site while in Canton.
I should also take this opportunity to say that I nearly got pounded by a dude on a motorized cart. With all due respect to veterans, I think he spent some time in Vietnam. He overheard me make a remark about the carts people were pushing around and their resemblance to tools used by homeless people (truly just an observation and that was not intended to offend anyone who uses them) and, to make a long story short, I thought Dad was going to have to defend my honor by preventing the man from running me over in his HoverRound.
Just a heads up, this blog post tells a sad story. But it's a sad blog post with a good ending. Sometimes, stories like these remind us to get over ourselves and our silly, tiny, selfish problems that we tend to think are a big deal. Since this story is of local interest to West Texas, I wanted to share it with others who may not of heard about it.
Yesterday on the Today Show, a family originally from Seagraves, Texas was featured on the show's program "Everyone Has a Story". The Lindsey family had a horrible thing happen to them a few years ago. The mother and father and their three very young children were traveling through their small town, which is 63 miles southwest of Lubbock, when a drunk driver t-boned them, killing all three of their children and severely injuring both parents.
Seagraves is in peanut country here in West Texas. It's home to Golden Peanuts, where Dirk Lindsey (the father) was a facility manager. Golden Peanuts is one of the country's largest peanut companies, and certainly a company connected to the Texas Peanut Producers Board.
The peanut industry is a tight group - both here in Texas and nation-wide. When something happens to someone in the industry, everyone comes together.
One of the parents attended the funeral on a gurney while the other was in a wheel chair. It took ambulances to get both parents to the funeral. The church was packed with everyone CEOs, presidents and anyone that was someone from the peanut industry who came to show respect for the Lindseys.
To move on with their lives, the Lindseys moved to Alabama and relocated to another Golden facility. They adopted two Chinese girls and named them Hope and Faith.
Watch their story here on the Today Show.
Tumbleweeds are one feature of West Texas living that vastly contrast life in Northwest Arkansas. When I was living out here for grad school, they used to pile up in our fenced-in back yard at our duplex. It always amazed me how those suckers could fly up over the top of a 7-ft. fence and take up residence in our cozy backyard.
Last Thursday a front came through. Out here, we call them "blue northers" because on the horizon, the front takes on a deep blue color and you can see them coming for a while.
Their only hope for escape is for the wind to shift, which will likely reduce the size of the tumbleweed as part of it remains stuck in the fence.
Oh, what a tragic life tumbleweeds lead.
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