spikey buggers

so, i made two trips into albuquerque this week for work. . . and the weather was slightly stormy. . . little bits of rain, little bits of snow, but a lot of wind. while tootling along and listening to America, the Audiobook! . . . i hit something like twelve or fifteen of them. spiney, scurrying little critters. damn tumbleweeds! they were everywhere, some of them really small, and some of them rather large and flush with whatever sort of dry branch material that makes them up. they were fun to watch exploding into splinters under the wheels of cars in front of me. . . but i also hit a good number of them myself.