I swear it was the Hindenberg.
Ok, so it wasn't the Hindenberg. It was the Fujifilm blimp. But still, it was a big giant blimp.

During my traffic-filled commute to work this morning, I gazed up over the sky of downtown and noticed a giant blimp floating about over the buildings. It wandered along, then eventually started turning a very slow turn.

To my knowledge, there is no major sporting event in town today, a Thursday, at 8:00-ish in the morning. Typically blimps are found floating over sporting arenas and whatnot, so naturally I was a little confused as to why I saw a giant blimp hovering above.

Why else would there be a blimp, if not a sporting event? The usual things I see in the sky in the morning are traffic helicopters, darting about ahead of where I am to let me know that I will soon find myself in a big pile of traffic. They are traffic copters of impending doom. But really, if the city has switched to Giant Traffic Blimps, that isn't making a traffic jam any more pleasant for me.

Could the blimp have been out for an advertising stroll through the morning sky? I sometimes see those little planes flying around, pulling a sign behind them, usually for Hooters or something else I can't read while trying to drive. I've never quite understood that advertising tactic. The planes are too high, the signs are too small, and everyone on the ground is moving. Is that really an effective way to get your sales pitch across to the masses? I can't really say for sure. But watching the Fujifilm blimp overhead this morning did not seem to create a sudden mass exit from the freeway as hundreds of cars headed for Wal-Mart to pick up a pack of Fujifilm.

The blimp is such a curious contraption. It just floats along, not really going anywhere, yet taking forever to get there. I have to wonder what the real point of it was for whoever invented it. It seems like you could throw a rock at it and punch a hole in it, causing it to gently waft to the ground, rendered useless. It's hard to imagine it going down in flames or being very dangerous at all, yet the Hindenberg seems to have met a tragic end in such a manner.

It's not like you can haul lots of cargo in a blimp. Seriously, I can carry more stuff, run, and get there faster and with a better payload than a blimp.

I guess you could sneak up on someone in an attack using a blimp. It's quiet, and could probably be painted as a giant cloud to float near a target and proceed to drop things in an attack-like fashion. But if they retaliate by throwing rocks, down we would go. Gently wafting, more than likely. But down, nonetheless.

I wonder if the inventor of the blimp would be proud that today the blimp is used to hover over sporting events and advertise film and tires.

I'd be cool with that. Too bad I didn't invent the blimp.

C.T.