Monday, May 18, 2009

A disturbance in the force

My powers of observation are weakening, it took me until reading Ish's post to notice the Petro Sign in its digital glory. I didn't have any particular reaction to that one way or another at the time, but after a few drives through, I'm realizing it doesn't look like Kodiak on that block anymore.

It is as if someone grabbed a section of Anchorage and dropped it off at the end of Mill Bay. (An aside, while rescuing a lost cruise ship passenger they asked "why the heck do you have an upper and lower Mill Bay?" Someone once told me the roads were all moved after the tsunami, but I'm guessing that road and where it meets both Rezanof and Mill Bay have been there forever, named for their ultimate destination: one block from Mill Bay. Other than that all I could do was shrug.) Anyway, with signage and pretty buildings and landscaping and franchises, by bringing someone back from the past and just standing there, I doubt they'd be able to guess where they were. Well, as long as your back was to Fir Terrace—that still looks roughly the same. All we need is a digital billboard right there on the corner where all the sandwich boards are for, we'll have Times Square K-town style.

The thought both makes me lament the passage of time, and the banes of technology. How interesting that conversation would be with the aformentioned time traveler though. After we reminisced that that area was all trees and swampland not too long ago, he'd ask me how my day was. I'd have to say "Hold on, I have to go AFK". He'd ask, "Is that a one or a two?". Then I'd go on to tell him I've been getting flamed with spam all day, and got hit with a Trojan. He'd ask, "Is that from Monty Python?". Then I'd rattle off a bunch of jargonic acronyms that the teens use for texting. "Texting? is that like putting your finger in the typewriter?".

Sweet progress.

1 comment:

kodiakgriff said...

When I noticed the new sign my first thought was, how long has been there?".
My second thought was I was so happy that some of the mind boggling profits these guys are making finally show us something substantial.
Later as I drove past, comforted by the fact my idea of the correct date and the signs agreed, I was wondering what would happen if the car wash worked 365 days a year?
Perhaps fixing that problem would have been a better use for the extra income the new sign used up.
Just a thought.
Peace