OT has to happen all the time. I guess

I just took a short, hour each way, drive to help my son with a couple
things at his place.

Being a bit "cell phone conscious" lately I really noticed the number of
people with the damn things stuck to their ears as they whipped through
lanes of traffic, eager to save, maybe, a second or two. I wonder what
percentage of those calls were even vaguely "important." ... certainly all
were dangerous.

Got me thinking that each day several people probably hear a friend or
loved one die as the attempts at cell phone/ driving multi-tasking fail and
end in a crash.

Damn I'm glad I'm so very, very, unimportant. The world won't end if I
I'm a bit late and it gets by well enough without my being on a phone 85% of
the time ... or ever while driving


.... or fishing

"Larry L" wrote in message
...
I just took a short, hour each way, drive to help my son with a couple
things at his place.

Being a bit "cell phone conscious" lately I really noticed the number of
people with the damn things stuck to their ears as they whipped through
lanes of traffic, eager to save, maybe, a second or two. I wonder what
percentage of those calls were even vaguely "important." ... certainly all
were dangerous.

Got me thinking that each day several people probably hear a friend or
loved one die as the attempts at cell phone/ driving multi-tasking fail
and
end in a crash.

Damn I'm glad I'm so very, very, unimportant. The world won't end if I
I'm a bit late and it gets by well enough without my being on a phone 85%
of
the time ... or ever while driving


.... or fishing

You do yourself an injustice. You are important enough. Why, without you
we'd be two threads short on cell phone observations in the past 24 hours or
so.

Wolfgang
aw, shucks.

On Dec 19, 4:22 pm, "Larry L" wrote:
I wonder what
percentage of those calls were even vaguely "important."

I'll confess to the most egregious cell phone call I ever took. Under
a warm, blue summer sky, #1 offspring & I were paddling from Lily Bay
to Greenville across a wonderfully calm and beautiful Moosehead Lake.
Loons swam and dove nearby, clouds dotted the sky, the beauty of
nature and isolation all around us.

In the midst of this, I took a call from my mortgage banker. By way
of explanation, we'd departed for a week in Maine in the middle of a
re-fi process, and yeah, it really was important; but it still seemed,
well, just wrong. Dangerous, no; but me in a touring kayak does raise
the possibility of drowning.

Joe F.

"rb608" wrote


In the midst of this, I took a call from my mortgage banker.


in Sept I was sitting at the Nature Conservancy cabin at Silver Creek
chatting with the volunteer hosts, a couple of retired teachers I've gotten
to know fairly well. My son is leaning towards teaching and we were
discussing that field.

There was some guy that showed up "to fish" that must have spent over an
hour on various calls ..... as his buddy got rigged .... then his buddy
stood and waited, ...then his buddy went down to the water, alone. You
could overhear enough of each call to know he was giving emplyee after
employee detailed instructions on what to do that day.

Jerry finally quietly said something to me about "can't believe he's been on
the phone this whole time on a fishing trip" .... which the cellslave heard
and looked up at, perturbed. Partly to take Jerry off the guys mind and
mostly because I'm a bit of an asshole, I then added loud enough to be
heard, " Yeah, if the business can't run for a couple days without him, he
must really suck as a manager. Employees should be better trained and
prepared than that."

I got a very seriously irritated look from "Mr Big Business" ... BUT ....
he was off the phone very soon after that and down at the creek. I like
to think I did him a favor, by ****ing him off. G

On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:37:13 GMT, "Larry L"
wrote:


"rb608" wrote


In the midst of this, I took a call from my mortgage banker.


in Sept I was sitting at the Nature Conservancy cabin at Silver Creek
chatting with the volunteer hosts, a couple of retired teachers I've gotten
to know fairly well. My son is leaning towards teaching and we were
discussing that field.

There was some guy that showed up "to fish" that must have spent over an
hour on various calls ..... as his buddy got rigged .... then his buddy
stood and waited, ...then his buddy went down to the water, alone. You
could overhear enough of each call to know he was giving emplyee after
employee detailed instructions on what to do that day.

Jerry finally quietly said something to me about "can't believe he's been on
the phone this whole time on a fishing trip" .... which the cellslave heard
and looked up at, perturbed. Partly to take Jerry off the guys mind and
mostly because I'm a bit of an asshole, I then added loud enough to be
heard, " Yeah, if the business can't run for a couple days without him, he
must really suck as a manager. Employees should be better trained and
prepared than that."

I got a very seriously irritated look from "Mr Big Business" ... BUT ....
he was off the phone very soon after that and down at the creek. I like
to think I did him a favor, by ****ing him off. G

Speaking as another very-unimportant, non-business owning/managing Luddite:
It's gotten to where I can pick out a rolling cell user from a half-mile away.
You've probably seen the same phenomena: wandering out of their lanes,
changing speed for no reason, running right through traffic signals and
signage without warning.

At least a half-dozen times in the last couple of years, I've been stopped at
a red signal with a "user" next to me and seen them suddenly just take off
through the still-red light. Now, I *never* go through an intersection without
my foot hovering over the brake pedal.

And they are fricken' *everywhere* I wanna go...

/daytripper (I can't pass these idiots fast enough)

"Larry L" wrote in message
...
I just took a short, hour each way, drive to help my son with a couple
things at his place.

Being a bit "cell phone conscious" lately I really noticed the number of
people with the damn things stuck to their ears as they whipped through
lanes of traffic, eager to save, maybe, a second or two. I wonder what
percentage of those calls were even vaguely "important." ... certainly all
were dangerous.

Got me thinking that each day several people probably hear a friend or
loved one die as the attempts at cell phone/ driving multi-tasking fail
and
end in a crash.

Damn I'm glad I'm so very, very, unimportant. The world won't end if I
I'm a bit late and it gets by well enough without my being on a phone 85%
of
the time ... or ever while driving


.... or fishing

Just announced in the UK that using the phone while driving, in some
circumstances could lead to imprisonment - reckoned to be as dangerous as
drunk driving

Gordon

"Gordon MacPherson" wrote in
:


Just announced in the UK that using the phone while driving, in some
circumstances could lead to imprisonment - reckoned to be as dangerous
as drunk driving

.... it'll make it to this side of the pond eventually, and not a minute too
soon.

Frank Sr.

Frank Church typed:
"Gordon MacPherson" wrote in
:

Just announced in the UK that using the phone while driving, in some
circumstances could lead to imprisonment - reckoned to be as
dangerous as drunk driving

... it'll make it to this side of the pond eventually, and not a
minute too soon.

Frank, you liberal weenie (who loves ya?). ;-) The problem is not the
phones or most of the people using them. The problem are the idiots who
can't walk and chew gum at the same time. I'll assume that the "some
circumstances" clause in Gordon's note refers to someone getting injured or
killed by the offender. In that case, personal injury or negligent homicide
should kick in anyway, regardless if they were distracted by talking on
their cell phone, texting somone (yes, I've seen drivers text while
driving), or wiping their ass (no, I haven't seen this. . . yet.) Any laws
regarding cell phone usage while driving don't take into account the myriad
other distractions that now exist or will exist in the future. The only
mandate that should be put into effect is "while driving, get yer head out
of yer ass and drive!" Just my lil ol' opinion.

OBROFF Law: While driving past rivers, fly fishers must not turn their heads
and stare at the water.
--
TL,
Tim
-------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

Tim J. wrote:
Frank Church typed:

"Gordon MacPherson" wrote in
:


Just announced in the UK that using the phone while driving, in some
circumstances could lead to imprisonment - reckoned to be as
dangerous as drunk driving

... it'll make it to this side of the pond eventually, and not a
minute too soon.


Frank, you liberal weenie (who loves ya?). ;-) The problem is not the
phones or most of the people using them. The problem are the idiots who
can't walk and chew gum at the same time. I'll assume that the "some
circumstances" clause in Gordon's note refers to someone getting injured or
killed by the offender. In that case, personal injury or negligent homicide
should kick in anyway, regardless if they were distracted by talking on
their cell phone, texting somone (yes, I've seen drivers text while
driving), or wiping their ass (no, I haven't seen this. . . yet.) Any laws
regarding cell phone usage while driving don't take into account the myriad
other distractions that now exist or will exist in the future. The only
mandate that should be put into effect is "while driving, get yer head out
of yer ass and drive!" Just my lil ol' opinion.

OBROFF Law: While driving past rivers, fly fishers must not turn their heads
and stare at the water.

I think talking on a cell phone while driving is qualitatively different
from most other distractions. People get so involved in their
conversations, often (as I observe) getting angry, that they lose track
of the fact that they're driving.

I suppose the same thing is possible with a conversation with a
passenger, but there's nothing a law can do about that. A law can do
something about the cell-phone distraction, though.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

rw typed:
Tim J. wrote:
Frank Church typed:
"Gordon MacPherson" wrote in
:

Just announced in the UK that using the phone while driving, in
some circumstances could lead to imprisonment - reckoned to be as
dangerous as drunk driving

... it'll make it to this side of the pond eventually, and not a
minute too soon.

Frank, you liberal weenie (who loves ya?). ;-) The problem is not
the phones or most of the people using them. The problem are the
idiots who can't walk and chew gum at the same time. I'll assume
that the "some circumstances" clause in Gordon's note refers to
someone getting injured or killed by the offender. In that case,
personal injury or negligent homicide should kick in anyway,
regardless if they were distracted by talking on their cell phone,
texting somone (yes, I've seen drivers text while driving), or
wiping their ass (no, I haven't seen this. . . yet.) Any laws
regarding cell phone usage while driving don't take into account the
myriad other distractions that now exist or will exist in the
future. The only mandate that should be put into effect is "while
driving, get yer head out of yer ass and drive!" Just my lil ol'
opinion. OBROFF Law: While driving past rivers, fly fishers must not
turn
their heads and stare at the water.

I think talking on a cell phone while driving is qualitatively
different from most other distractions. People get so involved in
their conversations, often (as I observe) getting angry, that they
lose track of the fact that they're driving.

I suppose the same thing is possible with a conversation with a
passenger, but there's nothing a law can do about that.

Why not? We could enact a "lip movement" law that restricts conversation of
any sort. Of course, that won't fix the "wiping their ass" thing, but we
could just pass a law per day until we've hit all the possibilities.
--
TL,
Tim
-------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj