dream ranch

For all the boys and girls in Congress, here’s some alternative perspective for today’s negotiations on the shutdown and debt-ceiling stuff.  

And while I know many human issues are at stake, I want to point out this story by Journal science writer John Fleck about the effect of the shutdown on migrating Sandhill cranes.

In my “monarch of all I survey” mode, I tend to think of myself as the first to hear — after my dog — the cranes coming down river. But apparently I missed them this weekend. Someone Tweeted their flight.

My late Sadie, a St. Bernard and perhaps bird dog mix, was particularly good at alerting me to the cranes coming to the north end of the Sandias to catch a late afternoon thermal for the ride down to the Bosque del Apache. Cooper has been just as good, but, heh, it’s the digital revolution and we’ve been beaten to the punch on Twitter. Just more help in knowing when to look up, I guess.