Trapped!

It is every homeowner's nightmare: to be surrounded and trapped in their home by beings with malicious intent. Wild animals. Street gangs. And -- giant tumbleweeds.

Some homeowners in a Colorado neighborhood find themselves in this situation, their doors and windows and streets clogged by, in some cases, 10-foot high piles of dry, brambly tumbleweeds.* They have come from surrounding empty fields and lots, hastened by strong winds, and leave residents trapped.

Residents say they are getting no help from their homeowner's association, probably because tumbleweeds are not covered in the HOA bylaws. They may even be expressly excluded: "Section XX407.29J3, Strange and Unusual Life Forms -- In the event of a tumbleweed invasion, this HOA will in no wise assist homeowners in exiting and entering their domiciles nor make any effort toward removing such obstacles; it may, at the express discretion of the HOA, levy a fine on any homeowner who repeatedly continues to submit complaints and requests for HOA officials to render assistance."

So if the HOA won't help, it may be time for residents to call in some experts who will only be too glad to mount an attack against the intruders: Boy Scouts. Think about it. There's nature. There's danger. People in need of rescuing. Tools to be used, and maybe even invented. If the boys could get a badge out if it, so much the better. The "I Fought Against Nature and Won Badge."

On the positive side, the situation offers an opportunity for the community to come together. Years in the future, residents can talk about how they met their "good friends, Judy and Greg, during the Great Tumbleweed Siege of 2014."

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*I can relate, although our threat comes not so much from outside our house as inside. Giant dust bunnies.