Okay...Lydia's comment about people on celphones set me off, I guess:
This is one of my pet peeves, lately. I got cut off last week by the same sort of idiot that cut her off...a person holding a celphone pasted to one ear, wrist-driving with the other hand, zipping erratically through 6 lanes of traffic in a car the size of a Star-Kist can, which also sported a 'wing' on the rear deck. Invariably, if you don't hurry to get out of their way, you'll get the 'finger-wave' as they speed by you, radio blaring.
Now, I don't drive slow. I drive the speed limit, or above. Usually, with both hands on the wheel and my eyes scanning the windshield and both mirrors, as they taught us back in Driver's Ed, many years ago. I have a celphone...use it every day, at work. If it rings while I'm driving, I answer it and tell the caller I'll call them back when I get home, or to wherever I'm going. I DO listen to the radio, and I turn it down if it gets distracting in heavy traffic situations. I don't hang my foot out the side window, or slouch in the seat like I'm in my easy chair at home. I've never had an accident or a ticket for moving violation of any sort, in 40 years. Not bragging...but I'm piloting a 3,500 pound rolling mass of metal, rubber, and glass, and I DO pay attention while I drive.
Have you ever had occasions where you couldn't remember what happened in the last couple of blocks? (Not while you were inebriated, either!) Maybe you just settled into your comfort zone, and didn't pay a lot of attention. I have. Now, what if a kid had run out into your path in that couple of blocks? Could you have stopped? Not if you were on a celphone, I'll bet!
Talk about dropped calls! :(
Comments? Rebuttals? What's your take on this? Am I ranting again? lol
10 comments:
I sometimes fill in, or work as a leader, at Weight Watchers. (Since I lost 50-odd pounds about two years ago, I've become a convert.)
This morning, I had to teach an 8 am class for my Day Job, but then I was free for the rest of the morning, so I went to do a fill-in for someone else at our local WW.
Have you ever tried to transact business with someone who will not put down her frickin-frackin cellphone while being served?
I'm guilty of calling while driving (though I try to keep it to an absolute minimum, which for me would be about 1 minute per month) but I never, ever talk on the phone while being served at a retail establishment.
That's the cell phone behavior that makes me taste metal.
Amen to that, sister. That drives me crazy. My friend saw a woman talking on a cell phone with one hand, a cigarette in the other, driving the steering wheel with 2 fingers. An SUV, I believe.
Doncha feel safe? 8^|
I actually saw a man on I-95 reading a newspaper, drinking a cup of coffee, and talking on a celphone! He was barely looking at the highway, and doing 75+!!!
My son-in-law is bad for dialing up his celphone as soon as he gets in the car...I've had to MAKE he and my daughter put on their seat belts! Grrrrrrr...
It must be nice to be 25 and immortal! :(
our 'reachability' currently is absurd. I think Cell phones in cars are for emergencies, period. I don't even answer mine. I find a place to pull over if something is so pressing I must acknowledge it while I'm out.
It is a peeve or rant currently, because there are no rules against using your cell phone in this manner. But the people who do this are not going to stop unless it has a negative impact on their lives. And some not even then.
It is akin to drunk driving. It is selfish and reckless behavior to think you can manage the situation without ever having consequences or it affect your abilities while performing a life threatening task, like driving.
Personally, my cell phone is not that big of a deal. I have 1500 monthly free minutes and use maybe 250 of them. I do appreciate the ease they provide at times but the etiquette of use by most people I see using them is astounding.
Even when I'm phoned by someone driving a car, I tell them to call me back when they have arrived wherever they are going. The only way to channel the peeve energy is to do what you personally can to change the situation.
It is an enormous freedom and it isn't likely to change, at least for a very long time. I just stay back and away from people that are driving like that... even if they do not have a phone in their hand.
I don't think I'm better than anyone else for my position, I just follow the 'be the change you want to see' mantra, best I am able because other than that I'm not especially activist motivated.
I might answer my cell phone while I'm sitting at a traffic light, but I always tell the caller I will call back when I get where I'm going. My son usually prefaces his calls with "where are you?" and if I say I'm driving, he says he will call back later. What a good boy!
He just turned 15 and one of the things he knows better than to do (right now, anyway) is to talk on a phone while driving. Even if it's not on the DMV test, he will be quizzed on it by us, and he had better pass, or else...
Reachability? Hmmmm...yes. It's more than absurd, number 9. What, I wonder, did we do before this, when we had to be without a phone anytime we were in our car, out shopping, at school, or even at work?
Well, we drove, or we shopped, we studied, or we worked! And we didn't have to call anyone to tell them about it!
Jim, I see people walking through the hospital, telling their friends "Oh. I'm on the 4th floor of the hospital." (Read: SO WHAT?) My wife waits on people in Dillard's that pay more attention to their callers than they do her. Nothing makes a person feel less respected than to have someone hand them their money for a purchase without even looking at them!
Makes me want to 'reach out and touch someone'...with a bat!
(Cindy...enjoy your child at this stage of life, when he's not all that affected by peer pressure, and he still listens to his parents. They change! THEY CHANGE!) :)
Before the days of total reachability, I think people took plans more seriously. We made plans to meet at a certain time, instead of"call me when you get off work, or get home, or whatever. You didn't just assume you could reach anyone any time.
Nonetheless, I like having a phone with me, but I don't always answer it. I own it, not the other way around. But once you have kids old enough to drive, it's an added sense of security that they can reach you, and you can find them. People just need to use common sense.
I agree with your statement that "I own my phone...not the other way around." Bravo!! I wish there were more around with your common sense.
I also can relate to having a celphone in order to be available if someone needs help. We got our first celphone when we were into riding motorcycles much more than we are now. Once, my son called us from the side of the road in North Carolina, where he and his buddy had broken down. We happened to be up that way with some friends on our bikes, and Pam and I headed over to them. When we got there, they'd been having car trouble since Georgia...hadn't slept all night or that day, and were virtually out of money (already!) I took off, got them the car parts they needed to get them on the road, loaned them some money, and we continued on with our vacation...minus a lot of stress we would have spent, worrying about them!
For that alone, they're good.
I have been a reluctant cellphone user. It took me a lot longer to get one than most of my friends and family. I still do things like *gasp* shut it off or turn off the volume. And have been known to walk up to a cashier and say goodbye to whomever I was talking to and the checkers are stunned. I turn it off when eating and actually ignore it when driving.
But then I am weird. :-)
Not weird at all, Lydia. You may actually be *gasp* displaying good manners! I'm sure most cashiers aren't used to THAT!! In this age of "me", I'm still stunned by the way people seem to ignore others around them. I have Nextel, and I get irritated when people 'walkie-talkie' others at full volume. The 'chirp' alone makes my skin crawl, after about 7 or 8 back-and-forths. I have mine set to vibrate when a call comes in, because I'm actually embarrassed sometimes to have to take a call when I'm busy with someone else.
On the plus side, you can always feign getting a call, to get out of a conversation you really don't want to be in! *snicker* THAT may be the only good thing about the cursed things! ;)
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