The Fountain and Bird Bath

The fountain I bought from Zona Fountains hasn't quite turned out to be the wildlife magnet I had hoped it would be. I thought I would be able to lure javelina, deer, bobcats and maybe mountain lions to within 10 feet of our back porch, but it hasn't worked out that way. Maybe they are too smart to come around when I might see them. I certainly see a lot of hoof prints between the porch and the fountain.

One curious result is the appearance of urban birds I hadn't seen here before: Starlings, House Finches, House Sparrows and Mockingbirds seem to be happy to take advantage of anything humans produce that might benefit them. I hope they don't tell their Rock Dove cousins about this.

A Gilded Flicker, rarely seen here, was my first customer. I haven't seen him since. The Gambel's Quail are afraid of the fountain.

I observed that the Mourning Doves seem to be able to suck up the water directly from the fountain. Every other bird I've seen in the fountain scoops water with its bill then throws back its head to swallow.









After drinking and considering the pros and cons, this Northern Harrier (Marsh Hawk) hopped in and took a bath.










I have been interested to see a male Pyrrhuloxia and a female Cardinal hanging out together. At first glance, they look like the same bird. Both have crests, with red caps, but not red all over like a male Cardinal. The easiest way to tell them apart is the Cardinal has a red finch bill and the Pyrrhuloxia has a yellow parrot bill. When these two pose together, as they are here (Cardinal at top, and Pyrrhuloxia on the left), you can see that the Cardinal is olive green, with no red on her chest. The Pyrrhuloxia is grey, with a red streak on his chest.
Okay, now for the test. What is this?

Papel o Plastico?

Picante's got both! This charming store in Arizona's oldest and most Mexican shopping plaza, Broadway Village, has papel picado for your Day of the Dead celebration, or any other festivities.

Papel picado means cut paper. Strings of papel picado flags are used to announce special events in Mexico.

As residents of a former Mexican outpost, Tucsonans can and should brighten their celebrations with papel picado.

Picante is a delightful store with decorative items, jewelry and clothing from Mexico. It's a great place to buy a Southwestern flavored gift.

Meet the New Ride. Same as the Old Ride. Sort Of.

When I bought my 2007 Camry Hybrid in May 2006, there were fewer than 10 in Tucson. It was still on a slow boat from Japan when I signed the contract. I bought it because my beloved 2003 Hyundai Sonata, a gorgeous gold Korean Jaguar, got 17 MPG. I didn't want to be part of the reason that we were occupying Iraq.

The Camry turned out to be a big bummer. Minor irritations were compounded by disappointing mileage. The last straw was the Toyota recalls due to brake and acceleration problems. Toyota gambled their sterling 50 year reputation, weighed the cost of the recalls against the lives of their customers, and made the wrong decision. They covered up the dangerous manufacturing flaws until they were forced to come clean. The Toyota reputation and resale value, for which I had paid a premium price, are damaged goods.

I thought about buying my seventh Honda. My three Honda motorcycles and three cars were paragons of care-free reliability. But the allure of my favorite car ever, the 2003 Sonata, reminded me to check out the new Sonatas. Hyundai's bumper to bumper warranty--five years or 60,000 miles--is the best in the car industry. Sonata has the best fuel economy in its class. When I learned one of the Sonata colors is black plum pearl, I had to see this wonder.

One of the disappointments with the Camry hybrid was that during its first year of production, it was still being made in Japan. I am pleased that my Sonata was assembled in Alabama.

The new Sonata has gotten raves from Edmunds, J.D. Powers and others. It is quite pretty, and a little more daring than the homogeneous Honda/Toyota/Volvo/Ford models. By the time I accepted how much I have to pay for a new car, all the black plum pearl Sonatas in southern Arizona were sold. All dealerships are awaiting their new inventory, with no delivery date in sight.

I have spent the last week having very unpleasant interactions with car salesmen. With two exceptions, they didn't listen to me, they put their needs ahead of mine, and they didn't hesitate to show their frustration when I didn't immediately do what they wanted me to do. This is the opposite of how I treat my clients, and it was nasty to be treated this way.

I finally found a salesman at Hyundai of Tempe who does business my way. Ron Rinaldi remembered what I told him about my car criteria and he was interested in learning about me. He told me his sales philosophy and why he is proud of his dealership. We both believe the way to stay in business through the turbulent market cycles is to put the customer first, and earn their referrals and repeat business. If you are thinking of buying a car, I highly recommend you consider letting Ron find the Hyundai that's right for you.

Of course, he also sells used cars, and unlike many salesmen, will look for the car you want, even if it's not at his dealership and he might not make as much on the sale. Imagine that.

I expect most people won't even notice I have a new car. In the photo above, the Sonata is in front, and the Camry is behind it. They are almost the same color red, with the same rounded mid-size sedan styling. The Sonata looks a little racier and of course its red is richer and shinier than the Camry's.

Ron gave me a complete orientation to all the features of my Sonata. It really has almost everything the Camry had, but I never used the Bluetooth because no one explained it to me. Ron linked the car to my phone so a display on the dash shows who's calling me. Don't worry, your phone number is not stored in my car, just in my phone. Before I got to Tempe yesterday, Ron had just spent an hour and a half explaining the navigation system to another of his customers.

Hyundai of Tempe is just off I-10 at Elliott. An easy ride when it's not rush hour. Ron gave me a Hyundai Santa Fe to drive home from Tempe last night. As soon as my moon roof is installed, Ron will drive my Sonata to my door. I'm so impressed. His number is 602-799-7226.

The Fossils are In!

Two years ago I went to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show on a mission. I had decided that I would set ammonites in my back splash at Desert's Edge, the house I am renovating in the Tucson Mountains. I went nuts and bought 40 pounds of these gorgeous 110 million year old fossils from Madagascar. They look like nautilus shells, cut open to expose the chambers, which can be filled with gold, peach, rust or lavender minerals. Some of the chambers have quartz crystals in them, and some of the septa between the chambers have been replaced with pyrite (fool's gold). I am completely enchanted with my ammonites, and have been admiring them on the buffet for two years, but no more! Now they are set among the four-inch travertine tile above the astoundingly gorgeous granite counters.










I hired Jack Langley with Southwest Design, who hired Kevin who hired Juan, who figured out how to do this. I had talked to a few tilers about what I wanted to do, and everyone but Jack had said it would be impossible to set these fossils, which taper from 1/4" to 3/4" deep, among the tile. I hate it when people tell me something's impossible. Anyway, Jack was game, but it was Juan who figured that instead of punching holes in the drywall to make the fossils lie flat, he could saw off the backs in his whetsaw. I watched him hold the first fossil in his hands against the spinning saw and told him to forget it, I didn't need these fossils in my back splash as much as he needed his fingers. It looked really scary, and Desert's Edge already has enough bad karma without adding the blood of a tiler. But Juan assured me he could to this without cutting his fingers off. The results exceeded my expectations by 110 million years.

Artistry in Glass

Two years ago I bought a small house in the Tucson Mountains. The back yard faces 63 acres of protected wildlife preserve. I didn't need another house, but the setting is stunning, and I couldn't resist. I figured I could use it as a vacation and party house, and maybe rent it short term to snow birds.

I spent six months renovating Desert's Edge, making it my dream home. By summer 2006, I still had plenty left to do, but I was so discouraged by the problems I had with the various contractors, I couldn't stand to work on it anymore.

Finally, last month, I felt could deal with the last three phases of the project -- install the floor tile and granite counter tops, and buy some furniture. The end is in sight, and I hope Desert's Edge will be ready for its housewarming by February.

I have bored my friends and myself to tears talking about what has gone wrong with this project. I want to use this blog to express my thanks to the people who made things go right.

I decided I wanted to have something like petroglyphs etched into some of the floor tiles. This is about the eighth property Jack Langley with Southwest Design has tiled for me. Jack suggested I talk to his neighbor, John Wakefield, at Artistry in Glass, to see whether he could get the effect I wanted. I did, and he could. John does all sorts of work in stained, leaded and beveled glass, including etching. He readily agreed to acid-etch patterns onto my floor tiles.

I traced Steve's hand and mine, added spirals in the palms, and took the drawings to John along with drawings of the sun and the Man in the Maze (only in this case, she's the Woman in the Maze).

John is from outside London, so just listening to him talk is a delight, but we learned that we had something in common. He's a former exploration geologist and I'm a former hydrologist. We both decided there had to be a better way to make a living than working for The Man, so we started our own businesses.

John runs his business the way I run mine. We try to keep the customer satisfied, even when it's not convenient. I wanted a change in the tiles on the Saturday afternoon before Christmas (he's only open by appointment on Saturday) and he cheerfully agreed to make the change that day so they could be installed on schedule. I am very happy with the results. You can see Steve's hand print in the photo above.

Benjamin Plumbing

I am finally getting started again on renovating my Tucson Mountain house, after giving up in dismay for 18 months. The granite counters are being cut this week, the tile is going in Thursday, and I've bought my new kitchen sink and faucet.

I bought the last two items at Benjamin Plumbing Supply. This place is way more fun than Home Depot! A locally-owned business since 1950, it's located between Fourth Avenue and downtown.

The stuff they carry is absolutely delightful.

How about a purple glass vessel sink? Agate faucet handles?

A shocking orange and black sink and countertop combination?

My favorite is the bronze sink that looks like fabric draped over a bowl and spilling off the counter. Check it out.

Bicycle Recycling and Art

Bicycle Inter-Community Action and Salvage (BICAS) will have its 12th Annual Art Auction, Fundraiser and Celebration on Sunday, November 18 from 6 to 9 PM at Artfare, 55 N 6th Ave., across from the Ronstadt Transit Center, just north of Congress St.. Music, food and entertainment will be offered, and winner of the silent auction will be announced at 9 PM. The art will be sculpture, jewelry, paintings and more, all made from bicycle parts or having bicycle themes.

BICAS believes that if you give people fish, you have fed them for a day. Teach people to fish; they can feed themselves for a lifetime. Therefore, the good people of BICAS will not repair your bike for you, but they would be delighted to teach you how to repair it, and you can use their tools.

They will also help people of any age who live in the barrios near BICAS to built their own bikes free of cost. Children from any part of Tucson can apply for scholarships to build their own bikes, too.

The crew reconditions and recycles bikes, so if you're like me, and you just want a nice used bike, you can go to their underground bike purgatory at 44 W 6th St. and pick one out. When I bought my bike there years ago, the entrance to the bike shop was through a hole in a wall next to a loading dock. You'd drop down into the shop, and it was sort of like entering Wonderland with Alice.

The web site photo seems to indicate that they are still underground, but now they have a ramp. Not quite as much quirky fun, but no doubt a lot more convenient.