No, not leaving your house in 15 years is a self-imposed prison. Some people just have problems that way--Isaac Asimov didn't go to the convention where he got his fourth or fifth Hugo because sitting on the train from NY to Miami was too stressful for him (and _forget_ about flying).
I agree. But either "dhall987" was equating that behavior to my post on driving, or he was off on a tangent that had no point.
Clearly I was equating having to suck a hard candy to escape thirst while driving or actually not being able to listen to the radio and drive at the same time and defining that as a requirement for "driving attentively" as being similar to deciding to force oneself to stay in their home for 15 years in order to avoid normal dangers that do, in fact, exist outside the home. I do not feel that I was on any tangent or that I had no point. It seems to be the type of extremism that keeps valid safety laws (like no texting while driving) from being passed. Clearly I personally do not find anything wrong or even slightly out of place with having a drink (non-alcaholic of course) while I drive. I have a decent OEM stereo in my truck and actually play it while I drive. I have even been known to eat a potato chip or even a sandwich while driving down interstate. So yes, I do think that taking an extreme position on absolutely no "distractions" (as you have defined them) while drviing to be a mild to middling phobia.
It is terrible to sip a beer over an hour's drive, but it is acceptable to pound down a few and jump behind the wheel.
In CT they were trying to change the law. It is OK to have an open container as long as it is not the driver's.
Both the open container laws and the driving while talking in a cellphone laws are "no brainer" low-hanging fruit for law enforcement. It's easy to catch the perpetrators because the offending cause of "evil" is in plain sight; never mind that fact that the presence of an open container or a cellphone doesn't prove any sort of impairment on behalf of the driver. I can chug a beer before I walk out the door on my way to the store to pick up some milk and not be "impaired" by any measure of the law, but if I drink it slowly along the way I'm in violation.
When I first moved to Texas years ago, it was an open container state; one could drink while driving, you just couldn't drive while impaired. Having come from Colorado, a state where that was against the law, I was initially amazed. However, it didn't seem to be a major contributing factor to any worse statistics than elsewhere. I know that they enacted an open container law several years later. Not sure if it was driven by statistics or by federal fiat threatening the loss of highway funds.
FWIW, I very seldom (less than one glass of wine every 6 months or more) drink, can't stand even the smell of beer (it tastes like stale bread to me), so I don't have a dog in this fight other than keeping those who are really impaired off the road.
VT had allowed anyone other than the driver to have an open container. The feds *did* use the highway funds as a lever to force them to change (as well as the seatbelt laws). I used to drive a carload of friends down to Saratoga every year and they'd drink on the way back.
Funny thing is that on a long drive you are probably more attentive and less accident-prone if you have some snacks and a slurp of coffee or something while you are driving. Except in dense traffic areas driving does not engage anything like a majority of your cognitive functions, so the mind tends to wander. I am much more attentive in light, open-road travel if I am talking to someone than if I am just watching the dotted lines go by.
It's not as simple as everyone wants to make it....
Tim Douglass
-------------------------------------------- My dad was an over the road driver back in the 50s.
Can not remember the number of times he advised me:
"Get out of the car, stretch your legs by walking around the car, and use the restroom every 2 hours or 100 miles driven."
"Cuts down on the "Bennies", No-Doz, and the ammonia vials on a long trip," were his words.
I still practice the above.
Lew
On Sat, 2 Jan 2010 21:44:43 -0800, the infamous "Lew Hodgett" scrawled the following:
Practice what, Lew? The walking around or the cutting down?
I take that former advice, too. Plus I drink water the whole way, so I don't have the ups and downs of caffeine. And I usually have a bag of baby carrots to munch on during the drive. Pee stops for a guy are easy. Pull off anywhere and in 20', you're deep enough into the brush and can pee in privacy. Well, that's up here. In LoCal, it's a bit harder, so use one of the restrooms from any gas station at any offramp. They're only a mile apart down there. ;)
-- Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness. --Thomas Paine
At my age, 100 miles between piss stops is too far!
On Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:37:19 -0600, the infamous Larry Blanchard scrawled the following:
I'd comment but I'm pleading the 5th.
-- Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness. --Thomas Paine
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