A Room With a View

Mid morning in San Ramon. I'm sitting at the desk in my hotel room, working through some e-mail while I cool my heels waiting for meetings today. I had two meetings scheduled this morning, one of them cancelled (by way of an Out of Office response to my confirming e-mail, so that was nice...), and one of them re-scheduled until this afternoon. So a busy morning has turned into a morning of e-mail, on-line learning and an old episode of Monk.

And the room? Absolutely ordinary. I've always tried to tell myself that a hotel room is at best a safe place to rest my head, no matter how good, or bad, the room is. Nice thought. Noble. Humble. That thought has been genuinely confronted by this room. Check out the view.

Absolutely the best freeway I've had the pleasure of sleeping close to.

The room itself is more at the "motel" end of the accommodation scale. The decor is maybe 1988. No mini-bar. Not that I use the mini-bar much, but it's nice to have the thought of access to a drink and a snack if the urge takes you. It's like being on a fast. The thought of not eating is so much worse than the actual act of not eating.

The mo-hotel itself is pretty isolated too, now shops or restaurants in walking distance. i needed a travel adaptor, and I usually rely on conceirge for things like that. I asked for one last night, they looked at me blankly. I asked where I could buy one. WalMart. I asked how to get there. The said speak to Maurice.

So I spoke to Maurice. And then, as we got in the car, I just sat back and listened. Maurice is one of the hotel's shuttle drivers. Really nice guy. Very generous with his time. And he talked me all the way around Dublin and Pleasanton, as we searched for said adaptor. We eventually found one at Radio Shack, after looking in WalMart and Best Buy. It seems that this wee town doesn't expect too many folks from overseas. Or at least folks from overseas that need to access the national grid.

Hey, there's also a convention a-brewing!! Goodguys. As in Goodguys, the classic car thingie. Hotrod Heaven in the car park, and Maurice assures me that by the weekend, they'll be so much shiny classic metal out there that it'll make my eyes water. This is genuine Discovery Channel stuff. So genuine that Chip Foose is making an appearance. Chip Foose? Google him. Get Overhaul'd.

This is home for the next nine nights. Travelling in Asia has spoiled me. This is not the InterCon in Singapore, or the Conrad in Bangkok. This is the Hilton in Pleasanton. If it wasn't for the truly comfy bed and the 39inch plasma, it would truly suck. So it doesn't truly suck, just has the potential too. Like a dust-buster.