Haibun: Real Power

Getting to Yosemite was a mess. I ended up staying in the worst hotel I could have. On Bookings.com they said they had free breakfast, the guy laughed when I asked. My room had one dresser drawer of the three it was supposed to and the office chair had 3 of its 5 wheels and one arm. Early the next morning the construction crew started with their music and hammers in the next room, so force get out of bed I decided to shower where the bugs started crawling out of the walls while I rinsed off. 

The Crossroads Inn in Sacramento could get away with this because of how Booking.com is set up. Others complained about the roaches on Google and other review sites, something I noticed after I left, but they looked great on Bookings.com. What bothered me is how helpless the costumer service reps at Bookings.com were at charging things. They couldn’t verify if anything they advertised was true, they could only verify that it was listed as a nice hotel. I felt as helpless as the customer service rep.

But as technology marches on, this happens more: we are helpless to the what’s been programmed and already decided by those in charge and gone for the weekend. 

But Yosemite was different. The Mariposa Grove with the powerful sequoias were what they were. Rising a upwards to 200’ in the air with branches the size of pipelines, they were mammoth. Yet in their power I didn’t feel helpless. That’s the world we are giving up for the “advantages” of technology.

sequoias tower

with heights of power, days wane

reaching autumn’s hour