Blogging by the Pool

"Blogging by the pool." That's what I said last evening when asked by my hosts what I was doing Sunday afternoon. I said it while relishing the opulence the words coming out of my mouth, with a hint of postmodern decadence.

Golden State opulence, to be sure. California decadence.

The hotel is large, a sprawling layout that goes back hundreds of yards from the main boulevard. Upclose it looks like a well-kept-up married student housing complex built during the height of the university expansions---two-story plain design with simple doors and windows, and a narrow sidewalk that goes to the interior.

But it is also surrounded by an overample moat of a parking lot, and many bright lamps that keep it all well-lit at night. It is clearly delineated from the nearby mid-level recent vintage apartments by a sturdy iron fence.

The pool in the interior of the complex reminds me the design of old Roman houses, the way they would put a small pool surrounded by a covered portico. Some designs are stable because they work so well. They are simple designs.

I am amazed too at the primitive power of both fire and water, or even the illusion of them, to give residual comfort while one is relaxing.