Happy Thoughtful Thursday to you! It’s a good day! I’m doing well and hope you are too! Yes, this is a long post today, but please read it all. Maybe it will help save a life!!!

Did you see Oprah Monday? I had seen previews and purposely set the DVR to tape it. It was about driving while talking on your cell phone and texting. Wow… It was a sad show. There was a wife and a daughter whose husband and father (two men traveling together) were killed due to a young man driving while texting. Surprisingly, the young man who caused the accident was on the show also. As it goes with life, he was not part of the accident he caused and he walked away without a scratch. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, community service and a few other mild punishments. But he was remorseful and very sorry for his actions. Although the two women lost their loved ones, I almost felt sorrier for the young man whose life is forever changed for being the catalyst of taking two lives.

Rarely do I get mad at Oprah but I was getting irritated because every time she addressed the young man about the situation she would ask questions or make statements like: “how do you feel about killing two men”? Or “after you learned you killed two people…”. I’m sure it was not easy for him to come to the show and put himself out there like that (he teared up and shed a few tears) and then to have Oprah keep making statements saying he killed the men, well I just thought it was insensitive and unnecessary. With years of interviewing skills surely she could have opened her vocabulary to a more compassionate way to address the young man. As he said and I can imagine is true, he has to live with what he did for the rest of his life! It haunts him and he can’t make it go away! But that is not why I’m writing.

I just could not believe the horror stories and statistics I was hearing. Not only did they talk about texting, they talked about simply talking on your cell phone while driving. Here are the stats. Talking on your cell phone while driving, is equivalent to driving while drunk. Chances of getting in an accident are 4 times greater when driving while talking on your cell phone. The same as while driving drunk. Chances of getting in an accident while texting and driving are 8 times greater!!! What are you going to do?

Oprah came on the screen at the end of the show making a plea to us not to use our cell phones while driving. She asked for a commitment. I have made that commitment. What she said and it’s so true, we all think: “I can handle it! That won’t happen to me! I got this!” Well… the young man on the show responsible for the death of two men said the same thing! He thought he had the skill down pat! But when he looked up one day and had crossed over the line on the highway, thus causing a fatal accident, he knew different! And I am guilty! Although I am not a 20 year old, I still fall within the “texting frenzy” age of 18 – 49 and I am by no means a shabby texter! I can hang with the best of them!!! I’ve been known to crack the 1000 mark in one month! Uh huh… And if I do it while driving, and I have, I am wrong! Living and working on a military installation kind of keeps it all in control because driving and talking on a cell is not permitted and carries a fine of $75.00. And yes, I have been pulled over once for driving while talking on a cell and was blessed with only a warning. Done with that! Next!

I can’t remember all the stats they quoted on the show but I do remember them saying that 6,000 people have died due to cell phone related car accidents. That is 6,000 too many.

One more thing. I do have one question about all of this. Weren’t the first non-land line phones car phones? Weren’t we encouraged at one time to use mobile phones while driving? Now we aren’t! With law after law coming into effect, what use to be the newest and greatest recommended innovation is becoming a no no. Because here’s the thing, forget the devices that allow you to talk without actually holding the phone in your hand, that is not what they are talking about! They are saying, studies have shown that talking while driving period is a distraction and wrong! It doesn’t matter if you have an ear piece, Bluetooth, or the real fancy systems where you are connected through your car’s system, don’t do it! Talking in and of itself is distracting. I must concur. I use to ride with a coworker to different cities. He would be hands free on his phone and I would be pointing at the exit and he would just by pass it time and again. He wasn’t texting. He wasn’t holding his phone in his hand. He was simply talking on the phone and he was distracted. I did it myself the other day, drove right pass my exit because I was caught up in my conversation. And several years back, I was that one that had an accident due to talking on my phone. Being engrossed in my conversation, I gauged what block I was on incorrectly and an SUV hit me on the back end of the driver’s side of my car. I went to the hospital but was blessed with only a giant bump on my head. Had I not sped up when I saw him coming, I might not be here writing this to you and imploring you to change your lifestyle and habits, and NOT use your cell AT ALL while driving!

I love to talk on the cell phone on the highway when I am driving alone and I think straight highway driving is safer than city driving but I am going to try to stick with my commitment and not cell and drive! It could be a matter of life and death!

Holla back!

The Governor’s wife, the beloved Maria Shriver was stopped by police for talking on her cell phone. This is just my opinion, but I think it is funny and OMG, so human! These are the kinds of things that brings everyone down to the same level and let’s us know we are all human. But here’s the thing, NOBODY in this world is more important to me than my daughter, my son and my grandson. Others and the media and the paparazzi may try to encourage me to think otherwise, but they can’t. However, if my daughter or son or grandson were stopped for talking on a cell phone, without a hands free device, in a state that forbids it, it wouldn’t make headlines!

Although, as I said, this makes Maria human, gosh is it really newsworthy and do we have to be inundated with every little detail of it? TMZ shined one of the brightest spotlights on Maria and her law breaking ways by putting up two pictures of her holding her cell phone while driving; one from July of this year and the recent incident.

Maria isn’t alone. The California Highway Patrol has issued more than 150,000 citations since the law went into effect July 2008. In Los Angeles County, where Brentwood is located, the Superior Court has set the cost at about $93 for the first ticket and $201 for the next one, meaning Shriver would owe at least $300 in fines and court fees had she been caught by police both times. Do you think Maria paid her fine?

Daddy Schwarzenegger – who voted the California law prohibiting use of cells phone while driving without a hands free device into effect – called out his wife and vowed to take “swift actions” on Maria. lol. I read one article that says the remedy would be to get her a driver! Absolutely! Let’s make the rich and famous look even more rich and famous! Get them a driver! Let’s not make her get a hands free device (that I’m sure cell companies are lining up to give her for free!) like the rest of Californians, uh uh. The most sensible way to resolve this monumentally issue is to get her a driver so she doesn’t have to bother with the hassle of that pesky hands free device! Now you know I am being facetious right?

Let the record show, I like Maria Shiver and Governor Schwarzenegger. I think Maria is the epitome of classiness x 2! Being one of Oprah’s best friends she has been on her show several times. Hearing her talk about their family values and standards and how they are raising their children is amazing! They employ a very normal and down to earth parenting style. Their kids do chores and work for what they get! They do not believe in kids getting any and everything they want just because they can afford to give it to them. They worked for what they have and their kids will work for what they get. I like that. With that being said, I am not at all surprised she was caught with an antiquated cell phone and I think it is classy that she chose to donate her archaic phone to help domestic violence shelters.

I’m just not sure that we had to know all of this. I guess if nothing else, it reiterates to Californians and all other states with this law in effect; you cannot drive and talk on your cell without using a hands free device! Gotta love a Governor’s wife who will take one for the team!

Holla back!

P.S. – I’m told (well I read)… Schwarzenegger has previously warned his then-16-year-old daughter that if she ever violated the law, “she’ll be taking the bus.” Whatever!!!

Good Afternoon. I hope you are having a good Tuesday. I have nothing heavy today, just a short little “What Would You Do” question. Here’s the dilemma.  Let me set it up.

You are at work and you go to the bathroom while you are in the middle of a texting conversation with a family member. You take your phone and go to the bathroom. You really have to go! The only stall available has leftovers from the person before you! And I mean food leftovers not liquid leftovers. How disgusting! You are angry but what can you do but flush and do your business, with your cell in hand. When you are done, you begin to fasten your clothes. You put your cell under your chin, for a few seconds. Right before you are about to flush, your phone falls in the toilet. OMG! What do you do? Do you fish it out or do you scream or do you cry or do you go get someone else or do you FLUSH! Lol. What do you do?

This is your familiar work restroom where the debris in the commode before you was at least debris from someone you know. What if the same thing happened when you were at a rest area or a football game or a gas station? Lord have mercy! I had a friend who once told me this same story except his was binoculars. He left them there!

So….it’s your cell phone looking up at you in the toilet, with your own body waste in the toilet, following body waste from the mystery person before you. Tell me, What Would You Do!

Holla Back!