Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Did I tell you about the turkey vultures? Big Big Man and I were jogging by the horse properties near his mother's house when we saw about 30 of them, perched in a dead tree no less. We'd seen three earlier, high up in a cottonwood, and scoffed at them, but they patiently ignored us. They were in exactly the same place on our return. We'll be here. Don't worry. Waiting for you.
Laveen, Arizona, is flooded by homes in shades of sandstone lapping at the feet of the mountains, but some of the old houses are still here. These are the big places with a couple of fenced acres where Big Big Man and I saw peacocks, chickens, goats, geese, donkeys, cows and horses and the buzzards all living together, apparently peaceably. The timbre of the dogs goes from yip in his mother's development to deep woof, Big Big Man pointed out.
We jogged through all of this a few days ago to a new development hard on the foothills, where construction has gotten as far as a paved road and massive steel gate. Little numbered signs mark tracts that could still be yours. As we climbed a hill, the cow-manure smell of the dairies, which refuse to give way to development, faded to the scent of damp creosote bushes. The view is killer: In the early morning sun we saw all the way to downtown Phoenix and the football stadium in Glendale, 20 miles away.
