EMPS: Patterns, Pups and the Park

For the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #47: Patterns, Carly is encouraging us to look beyond the obvious in photographically parsing the concept of patterns. Hey, I can do that! But it's taken me all week to get past the first two sentences of this entry. Sorry about that - I've been distracted with my unemployment claim situation, church stuff and 1960s episodes of Doctor Who. Onward! I've got visual patterns for you, and also metaphorical ones.

From Miko's Corner

During this summer's hot and humid but fairly rain-deprived Arizona monsoon, a pattern has emerged in my outings with the dogs. It used to be that we went to Miko's Corner Playground at Reid Park every single day around 5 PM - and then around 6 PM, and then around 7 PM when Rachel Maddow's show was over on MSNBC. But lately we've been going at or just after sunset, around 7:30 PM, when we go at all. On the other days, at about that same time, I take them up and down the block and probably down the alleyway, depending on the weather, and whether I think it will be full dark before we cover the half mile of alley.

Lots of dogs and their owners are in the park after dark.

This isn't just because I want to watch Keith and Rachel before going, and feed John, who comes home starving from work. It's mostly about the weather. Even a short stroll in hundred degree heat (or worse) isn't pleasant for me. More important, it can't be comfortable or even safe for Pepper with her long black fur, suitable for insulation as she herds reindeer through the snow as her ancestors did. So we wait until dusk, when the temperature falls into the nineties or even eighties.

A belated rainbow - a pattern of colors!

If we're lucky, the wind picks up as a storm comes in, because that's part of the pattern of the monsoon. The sky tends to cloud up in the late afternoon, and the rain, if it comes, gets here in the early evening. If it actually rains when it's time to walk the dogs, they miss out completely. But that hasn't happened nearly enough. We're just not getting the rain this year.

A typical sunset weather pattern - clouds building up and distant rain.

A pattern of shadows from a tree near one of the park's few lights.

Be sure to check Carly's blog Ellipsis every Monday for the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot! And if you like writing prompts, you can find John Scalzi's other old meme, the Weekend Assignment, right here at the Outpost every Friday. Be there! Aloha!

Karen

Update: Carly asks about the shading /tint on the top two photos. I wish I could claim artistic credit, but basically I went with what was already there. Aside from my brightening the highlights and midtones, that's how the park photos came out of the camera. The park's lamps all cast a yellow light, which the camera picks up more strongly than the human eye. But even in person, the lights are noticeably yellow!