Driven To Distraction

One of these days I just might do one of the following things: 1) send a text message and; 2) drive a car. I don't speculate that I will ever attempt to do these things simultaneously. In my previous attempts @ driving - things were not pretty. I like to drive fast, corner sharply and I have no tolerance for hitchhikers. Beware. In my wildest dreams I couldn't imagine driving while drunk [even one drink] or while talking on my non-existent mobile phone or even while listening to anything more entertaining than standard FM radio. Also, as previously discussed, I don't own a mobile phone. I've used one now slightly more than a handful of times...but every time I speak on one I shout and space my words out a lot, so I sound either drunk or as though English is my second language. I've never had a reason to send a text message - it seems that it was always those dang young people who were sending text messages, but now everyone is doing it. And yet, as life moves forward I still find I have no reason to drive a car or own a mobile phone.

And yet, apparently loads and loads of people think nothing of driving while texting. Driving. While texting! I mean, the whole yapping on a mobile phone thing - I would think that could prove to be quite the entertaining distraction - but no. I mean, at least with a mobile phone you can still be looking @ the road/traffic. I might not know a lot about texting, but I do know that it generally requires your eyeballs to be focussed on your mobile device. Not the road. The friendly friends over @ Roland Martin [huh - I don't have a Roland Martin tag] and friends were discussing the possibility of making texting while driving illegal. I get that naysayers will say that this will be difficult to enforce, but it seems to be common sense. Even me, a non-driver knows that you have to keep your eyes on the road [all the better to scowl down hitchhikers] and that whole "ten and two" business.

Mostly I just don't understand why you would need to text while driving. Why does there have to be a law saying "don't do this" you dumbass. If you do this, your chances of smashing into someone or something seem to be much, much higher. So, commone sense would dictate - just say no. Of course, mostly I just don't understand why I would ever need to text. Ever. I've made it this far without having need of a mobile phone [I love telling people this - they look @ me as though I'm an ancient curiousity belonging in a museum]. I miss pay phones.