Focus

[clevermanka]

normalcyispasse posted a very good piece on driving while distracted. Please take a moment to go read it.

Most of you who call me know that I don't answer the phone when I'm driving. If I call you and realize you're driving, I will usually tell you to call me back when you're out of the car (unless I just hang up out of pique). Please--if you're driving and I call, just don't answer. I'll leave a message. It's fine.

Comments

[cskippy2000.livejournal.com]

Is it alright to give you a holler if I'm driving next to you, through the window? You know, just catch up and whatnot? ;)

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Did you do that in high school, too? Good times! Drive around until you saw someone at a stop light, pull up, and make plans for the weekend or whatever...ahhh, American Youth!

[cskippy2000.livejournal.com]

yes I did! That's how we passed along information about parties and stuff. That might have been how the police found out too. We were really loud.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Teenagers aren't known for playing it close to the chest, that's for sure.

[slinka.livejournal.com]

Recently, we were getting a ride from a friend. I was pretty horrified when he started texting while speeding down a highway. He laughed when I asked him what the hell he was doing. Until then I didn't think people really did that. Seriously, it can wait.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

What did you do? Did he stop if/when you asked him to stop? Yikes!

[slinka.livejournal.com]

No, but he stopped when he got pulled over for speeding. he managed to talk his way out of the ticket but figured he should be on his behaviour after that. He really didn't take it seriously though, except the speeding; that's pretty much his regular driving, I gather.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Ugh. People are stupid.

[ms-danson.livejournal.com]

Last month the Ontario government enacted a law to prevent drivers from using handheld devices while driving. I think a friend refered to it as the "no driving while stupid" law. It has noticibly cut down on cell phone drivers.

[pms-inc.livejournal.com]

Thank you for suggesting your friend's well-worded post. Until a family emergency came up yesterday, I had intended to post an open letter to the driver in front of me on I-35 in the Liberty area, asking her to reestablish her priorities:

She was #1 Being frantically animated with one hand while #2 Using her cell and hands-free device to discussing something apparently intolerable to her senses (thus the waving hand) while #3 Struggling to keep a cup of coffee from spilling WHILE #4 Driving. I gave her my customary long loud horn blast and "WTF?" face. It's cases like these that make me miss those brilliant ground shaking Buick-ish train horns with which each older model vehicle came equipped. They were replaced by our current Roadrunner "meep-meep" horns, which just don't produce the exclamation point that my "WTF?" face requires.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you passed it along.

[shrijani.livejournal.com]

Being plenty phone-phobic, in the rare event that I do call a person, I don't want to distract them while they're driving, or hear that sleepy voice that tells me I woke them up. Hit the ignore button and go back to sleep, for fuck's sake.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

For. Real.