Bad Idea

Do not play golf at noon in June in Tucson. It is too hot. You will get heat stroke and die. Even if you're just driving the golf cart. Also, the boys you are with will get heat stroke and get grouchy, unless one is on muscle relaxants, in which case he will shoot better than he has ever shot before and make the other boy grouchier. But driving a golf cart is a good idea any time, especially if you've never gotten a driver's license. You won't crash into someone else's cart or tumble sideways down a hill.

I have seen, while observing golf in Tucson at various times in the day, many new birds, and some boring old ones.

Old ones: Great-tailed Grackle, Mourning Dove, Northern Mockingbird, Goose, Sparrow.

New ones: Roadrunner, Gambel's Quail (red-headed, not like boring old California Quail), House Finch (or maybe VermilionFlycatcher but I knid of doubt it), Cactus Wren (I think). I also saw some kind of hawk or falcon panting under a tree about six feet away from me, but it flew away before I could take a picture of it.

Here are some (unofficial) categories of birds in my field guide: Dabbling Ducks, Huge Waterbirds, Flashy Flycatchers, Classy Gulls. Titmice (hee hee).

There are other good things in Tucson. The mountains are neat and cactus are silly. I'm eating leftover meatloaf from The Grill, which is open late late and serves good food in huge portions. I had pancakes there once and they were the best ever.

Another good place to eat is A Shot in the Dark Café (which just changed its name from far-superior The Café). I had the best blueberry waffle ever this morning. One of the owners is a well-trained cook and hates cooking the kinds of things they serve there, like Potatoes Maximus, and oatmeal, but he does it really well and inexpensively and they have a nice screened-in smoking room. And the music they listen to is the exact same music I spent 7 years listening to at the coffeehouse I worked in. Smokey Robinson, Portishead, Wilco, Ween &c.

You can smoke in bars in Tucson. The Hotel Congress is very old and cool. One of the bartenders at the Taproom there, Jeff, writes bad poetry and he'll sell you one of his chapbooks.

I'm going to Massachusetts tomorrow.