Sun Sets Are Considered The End

     

Some people sometimes say that Sun Sets mark the end of the day, in this case this last entry marks the end of this blog. After countless hours of observing the park, our assignment is coming to an end. Seeing the changes from when it was warm and you could travel in just shorts and a tank top, to where you actually had to be covered in layers in order to walk to the park. ““Dusk is just an illusion because the sun is either above the horizon or below it. And that means that day and night are linked in a way that few things are there cannot be one without the other yet they cannot exist at the same time. How would it feel I remember wondering to be always together yet forever apart?”(Quotes of Sunsets)

Looking at the park now and thinking back to what it originally looked when I started this post. The trees are bare as if they had been stripped from their leaves, the grass is as yellow as the color of a canary’s feather and the monkey bars are as cold of the first feel of winter. The sky thinking that it would have been changed, looks the same the day I started to observe. The yellows, purples, and oranges that are seen in the sky, are just a little more vibrant.                                             

Have you ever wondered why people think of sunsets as peaceful or just the reason that we enjoy looking at them? I always thought that it was just my way of getting away from society but then I asked myself that exact question. “The aesthetic experience of watching a beautiful sunset hits a lot of pleasure centers in our brain. I’ll get the quasi-scientific stuff out of the way first. I’m pretty sure we’re wired to feel safe in the gentle glow of a fire. Fire was a crucial part of our evolution into Homo sapiens. Our ancestors are thought to have used fire for around 75,000 years before Homo Sapiens came to be, and we have only been around in this form for about 50,000 after that. The light of the setting sun casts the world in a gentle, warm orange glow, I think the wavelength of the light could be an important part of our enjoyment for the reasons I stated above. Beyond that? It’s the turning of a page. Like the metaphorically and psychologically important act of going through a portal, but at a much larger scale. We can put the troubles of the day behind us and move on, perhaps even get some rest. In the tropics, we instantly feel a reprieve from day’s heat. For those inclined toward deep sensory appreciation, it paints the world with ever shifting shadows that mask and highlight different parts of our surroundings we may not even notice in harsher light; the sky itself becomes a canvas for a rosy fingered dusk. For the imaginative, the shadows themselves come alive; the promise of a mysterious night lingers in the air. We can dare look directly, if only for a moment, at the fiery sun god. Nocturnal creatures also warm up for their nightly symphonies”(Quora). The volleyball court seems as if it hasn't been taken cared for in 5 years because of the amount of weeds that have been there since I first started this project.

As always the park is very empty, the slides haven't been used and the monkey bar metals all echo from there not being any type of noise around.

     "Quotes About Sunset." (144 Quotes). N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014

"Quora." Why Do Humans Enjoy Looking at Sunsets? -. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.

Number 5

      

This week I noticed that all the leaves from the trees' have fallen. They all turned abnormal colors then what they started when I first observed the park. Have you ever wondered why the leaves change color, or how? I did some research on why they do and how. I always knew that there was science behind it but, it was actually pretty cool.

"Winter days are short and dry. Many plants stop making food in the fall. The chlorophyll goes away. Then we can see orange and yellow colors. These colors were in the leaves all summer, but the green covered them up. Some leaves turn red. This color is made in the fall, from food trapped in the leaves. Brown colors are also made in the fall. They come from wastes left in the leaves.

After I looked this up, it made me understand a little bit more on how things work in the environment and the way it changes the appearances of someone's perspective. Seeing all the leaves on the floor, it makes the park seem trashier. It seems as if we don’t have a caretaker to clean the park when it is necessary. At the same time it makes it look very natural and mystical. The colors of the leaves, is the reason for the patches of grass, which makes it look like a piece of cheap art. 

        The park seems more lonely and filled with less life and any type of excitement. I saw something today that I haven't seen in a while. A family along with two dogs saw the leaves and automatically ran towards them. They bounced and threw the leaves in the air. Soon after they realized that they should gather the leaves up. After gathering them up, they ran and jumped on them thinking that it would be as comfortable as it is in the movies. Instead they fell right through.
         MLA: Autumn Leaves and Fall Foliage Why Do Fall Leaves Change Color? By Science Made Simple." Autumn Leaves and Fall Colors. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.

The imprints

        While I was observing the park this week, I noticed that somebody must have been playing with the horse shoe set. At my park we have many different sections: one being a volleyball court that has sand that just smooth's the soles of your feet, then we have that stable that are meant to throw horseshoes.
         Today I was walking through the path that you take in order to get there, and I saw the imprints of a horseshoe. It was a perfect outline that showed where exactly it was where the horseshoe laid. After  a while, I started to remember if the visit was soon before I arrived. Do things always leave imprints in the sand? I wonder how hard they would have thrown it in order to make that perfect shape or if he just threw it straight in the air?

Distrusting The World

       This week my blog is going to be kind of messed up but at the same time have somewhat of a sense of humor. When you're a kid you are really fearless, you believe that no obstacles can defeat you in this case a monkey bar. When twirling on the monkey bar and a sweater is used to comfort your turns, you forget that it both makes it easier to spin but at the same time easier to fall on your face.
         While I was enjoying the free space and the beautiful view of the park a family pulled up in the parking lot (which actually surprised me). There were two kids and just the mom. The two kids automatically went to the jungle gym and the slides. The younger one  on the baby slide and the older one on the monkey bars. After a few minutes, the girl decided to make it a little more exciting and she put her sweater on the bar, after a couple of turns...... BAM she falls on her face. Knowing that I would be known as the rude and disrespectful person to laugh when a kid gets hurt I tried to keep it in as long as I could. After a couple of seconds of laughing under my own breath, I went to check up on the little girl (to make sure she was fine). At that second I knew she hated the world and at that time gravity. These are the times as a kid, you know that this is one messed up life.

Remembering the old times

When looking at the park you simply ask or remanence all the times you played in the park when now and days not many kids come to the park and have any type of specific exercise. Seeing the park so empty tears at my insides knowing that in the future nobody will ever be here or even have anymore adventures. 
Some reasons to come to the park:
The beautiful view 
The escape from reality
Being able to feel alone
Enjoyment 
Laughter 
And memories.

Remembering when you were little and you came with your family and all the outstanding times of laughter. The weather never bothered us, we would sometimes leave without a sweater because we were so excited to be going to the park. 

I Can See Clearly

       Finally, after weeks of drowning in smoke from the mountains surrounding Reno, the view of the park has been cleared of all the smoke. Parents no longer have to worry about their children getting lung cancer as they play outside. The sun is no longer bloodshot red from all the chemicals roaming in the air. For me, it means no more headaches or migraines. To the people that are playing a fall sport, it means that they actually get to play for the first time in two weeks. For the first time in a while we can see what is in front of us for a good mile and a half. No more accidents with the excuse being "I didn't see him because of the smoke". The best way that the smokey sky should be cleared up, is by rain (that is why I named this post after an old song). 
       It might seem strange how much depth I went into with the park, but this assignment requires me to observe something of my interest for this first semester of school. My whole class along with the English class at Sparks High School were instructed to take notes and blog about changes of our subject weekly.