Water

An early John Updike* story describes a man who travels homeward from a party through a series of suburban backyard swimming pools. Today felt like a subset of that. 
*Oops, wrong writer John—it was Cheever.

I finally felt well enough to try a water aerobics class (well, half a class) at Southwest Community Center. SWCC is my substitute pool whenever Dishman, my home pool, is closed for maintenance (currently, six weeks and counting). Southwest is a beautiful pool, but it's eight miles down I-5, the interstate un-freeway that runs from Canada to Mexico, with trailer-trucks to prove it. Afterward, I stopped to check on Dishman's progress.

Extras: 
1. Another view of the Southwest entrance. 
2. Dishman interior with pool. Empty of swimmers, with workmen upstairs in the balcony. 
3. Dishman exterior, with a sign explaining its closure. I was told it should reopen by the end of next week. Hallelujah! 

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Today ends Mono Month, a self-imposed experiment. The fact that I posted four pictures today, all in black-and-white, may indicate a reluctance to return to color, despite my longing for it all month. I grew up with black-and-white photography—my father was a skilled amateur—and it seems to me to have an elegance and an artistry that color  photography often lacks. 

I learned a few things about black-and-white photography.
1. Mono is unifying. It eliminates bright-colored but inconsequential elements of an image, and other distractions. 
2. Mono enhances design. It rewards cropping and subtle changes.
3. Mono celebrates light and shadow. Thus mono images are inherently spiritual.

There are some things one simply can't say in mono. Color can be garish, superfluous, as unnecessary as whipped cream on ice cream. It's the sugar of the photographic diet. But it can also be essential, and magnificent. As I prepare to return to it tomorrow, I wonder whether I'm up to its demands!

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This blip has turned out to be about departing and returning. Hmmm.