jr conlin's ink stained banana

Last night, i heard that my local phone company was planning on stopping time.

Now, while i have little doubt that they could (since our phone company rivals only certain Canadian Insurance Companies in both capabilities and intent), i did realize that they meant they were going to stop offering that time recording you can call up.

Ok, right there, you've got something that can accurately specify your age. If you remember picking up a phone at any point and calling a service to get the current time, or even knowing the gender of the voice that informed you "at the tone, the time will be 8:50 BEEEP", you are officially "old". You, like i, grew up in an era before cell-phones, PDAs, iPods, actually accurate personal computers, in-dash clocks and honestly thought that digital watches were cool (Getting that reference? Yeah, that makes you old too).

For old times sake, i wanted to call up my local time in a box and wish the nice lady with the pleasant speaking voice goodbye. Only it took a bit of effort to find the number.

Doing a search for "San Francisco dial time" produced, nothing. So did about five other queries i tried. It wasn't until i dug up a copy of the white pages that i found it on page 148:
Time Announcement Service …… 408 767 8900
(the fact that they provide driving directions tickles me no end.)

Sadly, when i tried calling Time, i found out that it's time had already come. There was no answer. She had already slipped the surly bonds, been unplugged and undoubtedly escorted to the curb where she'll eventually turn up on ebay.

Oh sure, i may have helped contribute to her demise, but unless someone were insane enough to actually generate her voice as a podcast, i think we all lost a bit of history.