Neanderpundit

because when I saw this, I thought “What’s the big deal about nine knobs?”

that I’d love to use as a hammer on some people.

Back here, a couple days? weeks? ago, Tam talks about trucks and cellphones. And the morons who use them

Now, a commenter took her to task for hating on trucks- and I didn’t get that feeling at all. I think she was talking about people, and i know the people she was talking about.

Me, I’m not one of them. I know, I’ve talked before about talking while driving- I use a headset. If you can’t have a conversation while you drive, and still pay attention to the road, you had better take the rest fo the seats out of your car; a conversation via headset is no different than a conversation with an occupant of the car.

No, dialing the phone, and holding the phone to your head, are the things that give you tunnelvision.

Or text messaging. Or getting your email.

Both of which I do.

Let me back up. See, my commute is through the nastiest expressways on earth. Oh, people whine about Miami, and California, and all other areas of the US, but for sheer soul crunching life sucking madness, you have to have the combination of stone moronic drivers, ongoing road construction, horribly mismarked and poorly designed roads, and miserable four season weather of the Chicagoland area. Nuff said.

So for three plus hours a day, I sit in this traffic.

Sit being the operative word.

While I’m driving, I will take a call. I’m already plugged in, and a phone call helps kill the miles. I rarely initiate a call. But when I’m stopped, which is a lot of the time, I will text message. Read email. Surf the web. As soon as traffic starts to move, I’m on it, and the phone goes on the seat next to me. But the Treo makes an hour that is horribly unproductive more productive. And it kills the time.

Texting, making calls, reading emails when you’re driving? well, on rare occasions when there’s NO traffic, on a perfectly flat and straight piece of road (rare) I might look at an email; but this is very rare.

Still, compared to MOST other drivers out there, I could write a symphony and practice juggling while I drove. And I’d still be better than most. But that’s not good enough, not for them, and not for me.

Make up your goddamned mind, or get cruise control, for gods sake.