Today, I thoroughly appreciated being able to take a day off from work just for some personal down time, and I enjoyed the time away a great deal.

It’s not that I did a whole lot. It’s more that there were some good memorable moments throughout the day.

And the day started with a treat delivered by the marvel of modern technology: my brother coached his two daughters and a girl’s high school home school basketball team through a three game tourney this morning in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin- and the games were available for live streaming over the internet, which meant that I could watch them, and I did. Both girls had some strong moments on the court, and in the second game, his elder daughter, Faith, hit a three-point shot at the game-end buzzer to tie the contest up, and send it into overtime.

The team was 2-1 in the tourney, but it was a treat to see my nieces play some good assertive basketball.

When early afternoon rolled around, my attention switched from basketball to baseball, and I listened to the opening game of Lobo baseball for this season, a contest between the Lobos and the Oregon State baseball team, which was a consensus #2 rank in all the major polls for college baseball. The game started out evenly, but finally Oregon State put together a 2 home run, 3 run inning, and the presseure fell on the Lobos to respond. They did, but just not enough as the Lobos fell to Oregon State 5-2.

About 3:00, I pushed myself out the door to complete one last goal for the day. I had wanted to get down to the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge for some time, but never seemed to make the time for me to go. Today, I had some time.

I went, and after driving through the bare fields in the Refuge, I parked at a visitor’s lot back off the Rio Grande Bosque, and then walked out to the river.

The sky was gray, but there were plenty of birds on the nearby stretch of the river.

Mostly, across the river from me, were cranes edging around a sandbar and walking on the far side bank.

And from time to time, chevrons of crane would fly up or across or down the river overhead, chattering all the while, allowing me to take their photos.

It was a nice way to spend the late afternoon, out by the river. For the birds.

The Sandias under a slather of clouds, from Valle de Oro.