Wow! I don’t know even where to begin, it’s been so long…if there’s anyone still out there reading this blog, no, I have not quit, died, been abducted by the aliens mentioned in an earlier post that found me on Twitter then picked me up out of the sandhills of West Texas where I have been shooting prairie chickens for the past three weeks. I’m still here…

I’ll start back on the blogaroo with a pretty uplifting story. Someone, or some people did a helluva rain dance yesterday, and man did we get it! It wasn’t so much of the rain that bothered us, but rather the steps of the dance that brought the golf ball sized hail and tornadoesque rotations. Really, though, what are you gonna do than just go chase after and get caught in the middle of the two or three storms that are making up a larger cell? Well, that’s what we did! There’s really nothing more satisfying while photographing adverse weather than to have some nice light pop out for a few minutes.

The cattle didn’t seem to mind…

On our way east to track the storm, we got stuck…in a ditch. I’m a utilitarian at heart, and I didn’t buy my FJ for looks, but for capability! Every day I am more and more convinced that Toyota makes the best cars in the world. Eat your heart out Jeepers! Anyways, just before we get to a great spot to shoot the storm from a wide vantage point, we hit a county road layered with mud (you really should see West Texas county roads), and we spent the next three miles traveling 2-5 mph toward the little town of Petersburg, Texas. Time didn’t matter by the time we got there, the clouds had all moved in, and the light was gone.

This didn’t stop us from stopping at Feed Your Spirit Pizza, though! Feed Your Spirit is owned and operated by Enrique and Rosalinda Morales, two of the nicest, if not the most congenial, people I have ever met. We were the only ones that showed up aside from a father and son who just came in to pick up a hand-tossed pie straight from the oven. The Moraleses were so compassionate, when the hail started up again outside, the rushed over and told me that I could pull my car under the awning above the sidewalk outside the door. I wonder what the local law enforcement would have though, my car inches away from the only door to the building.

The pizza was great as well. The Moraleses started the pizzeria to offer a place to give back to the community (approx. 1,200 citizens), and they said they host quite a few youth of the town regularly. From all the signatures on the wall where they let people sign, I would say they are doing a great job being great stewards of the community! When we were about done with our pizza, Rosalinda came over and told us that they had made us another pizza to take with us, on the house. Wow! I couldn’t just let this go, so I told them that if they were going to do that, I wanted to take their portraits, how I see them, for the wall of the building. They agreed and you see the product: identification of two wonderful, selfless people exhibiting kindness to who an hour before were total strangers!

I’m going to eat the other pizza tomorrow!