During the day, the capital M in front of the Marathon gas station on the corner of Maple and W. Stadium looks staid; it’s composed of simple red pavers nestled in a bed of white rocks and flanked by red mulch. But the pavers are trimmed in holiday lights. They’re all but invisible by day, but by night, they transform it into a flashing, color-changing beacon.

Station owner Zeke Hermiz says the M can stand for either Marathon or Michigan. He says it flashes “red, green, and blue, and I don’t know what else. Except yellow-no yellow”–allowing, tongue-in-cheek, that its absence may confuse some U-M fans. Hermiz says that the installation of new gas pumps prompted him to spruce up the landscape as well.

With its legs angled out, the Marathon M actually looks more like the University of Minnesota’s logo than Michigan’s upright version. It could even be read as two As, offering a welcome to Ann Arbor visitors.

“You’re the only one” to suggest that, chuckles Hermiz.