Monday & New Kind of Question

[Peg Herring]

Okay, I'm traveling, so the question of the day is, WHY do so many people talk, text, and make calls while driving when we KNOW how dangerous it is? Okay, maybe you do it when you're on the open road and relaxed, but we've been cut off by so many people in the middle of a city who are dialing, driving, and changing lanes at will. If I ruled the world...

[Peg Herring]

Yeah, but you're funny, so you can be as old and coot-like as you want!

[P.J.]

My husband and I are probably the only two people we know who do not own a cell phone, and have no intention of owning a cell phone. I'm a good person, therefore I do not need or want a tether. We do have caller ID on our land line (yes, we still have a land line) and I can let that phone ring and ring and ring. The answering machine is there for a reason, and I use it. It amazes me, in my workplace, to see women on the phone at all hours of the day, conversing with their children, spouses, friends . . . I can't imagine having that kind of access to my parents as a child. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't WANT that kind of access! Either as a parent or as a child. Yeah, I'm an old coot . . . and getting older and crankier about some things.

[Peg Herring]

Maybe it's my placement in time, but I do not want to be available to everyone at all times, and certainly not when I'm driving. And don't get me started on people who answer their cell in a restaurant or in the checkout line!

[Clair Dickson]

Because they're good drivers. They're not reckless or dangerous. It's all good. Just like someone who's drunk is sure they'll drive just fine so long as they're careful.

The other reason I suspected is that you can't not answer a cell phone when it buzzes, chirps, rings, or sings. Or so I'm told. Some how there's this sense of needing to answer it... some people have forgotten and others never knew what call-screening was (remember letting the answering machine get it or just plain ignoring the call based on what caller ID said? Oh man... I wish my cell would ID all incoming calls, not just the ones in my contacts.)