Cell phones and driving while using them

I've grabbed my ringing cell phone at a traffic light and told the caller that I'm in the car; I'll call them back. A couple of the callers seemed surprised, like I should be able to drive and talk on the cell phone at the same time. Can I? Yes. Am I going to? No.

I can always tell who's driving while on the cell phone because those are the idiots who come over into my lane of traffic. It's amazing watching people going 65 mph on the beltway or trying to park or manuever their way around a crowded lot while talking on their phone.

What the hell can be so all-fired important that they need to endanger themselves, and more importantly, others?

I've gotten a couple of calls when someone has been driving on their cell phone, and they're utterly floored by my comment that I'm not going to talk to them while they're driving; they need to call me back when they're stationary. A couple of those callers sounded downright offended.

I don't give a rat's rotisseried rump. I'm not going to play enabler. If they were to cause an accident because they were on the phone with me at the time, I would never forgive myself.

I read online a couple of weeks ago, I think it was, that London now has a law where if you're caught driving while talking on your cell phone, they can impound your car. Works for me. Last week there was an article in the Baltimore Examiner that the "no cell phone while driving" law got shot down, because people didn't understand it.

What the hell is there to understand? Stay off the goddamned road if you're on your cell phone. You want to kill yourself, fine, have at it and have a nice time doing it. Don't take me or anyone I love with you.

And the same thing applies to those multi-tasking who think they can apply mascara (oh, there's an interesting way to put out an eye if you're forced to brake suddenly), read a map, or anything else while driving.

We did well enough without cell phones before they came along, so now all of a sudden we can't even drive without them? If your life is that goddamned busy that you have to talk on your cell while in your car, or most other public places where common sense and plain ol' decency tell you that you should wait until you're home or at least somewhere where others won't hear you, then you've obviously got way too much on your plate, and you need to figure out a way to simplify your life.

Cell phones are wonderful things to have, but no technology should rule our lives or endanger us, or others in our path because we don't know how to divvy up our time properly. Technology is here to serve us, and to make our lives better, not the other way around.