Yesterday I was on a not so busy two-lane highway that I use to transport my personage to get my allergy shots.  Pesky things those allergy shots.  They take time.  They take money.  They hurt.  I tell myself they make me feel better.  My nose and sinuses tend to confirm that.

On the way home I saw a very precious and welcoming sight.  On the east side of a north-south highway I was travelling north on, I saw a young girl…4 or 5 years old…driving in one of those battery-powered four- wheelers that children have a tendency to enjoy tooling around yards and driveways in.

This 4-wheeler was pink and decorated quite nicely.  The child was at least seventeen yards away from the road; there was no threat of danger to either of us.

What struck me was the way the child was intently looking at the other driver…me… and how she had both hands firmly on the steering wheel similarly to what we (those of us that took driver education) were taught.

Good for you young lady, I thought to myself.  Keep it up.

More importantly, keep that firm grip on the steering wheel!  Do not let go of it one day just because your little cell phone goes off and you think it is humanly impossible not to respond immediately to something that is doubtfully a matter of life and death…or much of anything really significant.

Translation:  Do Not Text and Drive!!!!

I have an ulterior motive here…I am greedy.  I want to live!

I drive at least 108 miles or more about 250 days of the year.

I am sick and tired of seeing folks with their heads titled at a 45 degree angle;  they are not looking at their odometers.  They are looking at their darn phones.

Who cares what “twitter” has to say if your safety depends on how you navigate a motorized vehicle through ample amounts of traffic or a country road that insists that you stay on your side of it for the sake of the safety of you and those around you.

It is tough enough on some country roads where I live given the massive deer population…I have hit five of Bambi’s cousins myself.

What is worse is the fact that I am now dodging idiots looking down at their cell phones as they are finding me hurtling toward them at a normal rate of speed…or slower thanks to these morons…and they jerk their cars back into the space they were intended to drive in based on the rules of the road.

Okay.  I do talk on telephone as I travel.  Given I have a long commute, it is the best way to keep up with some folks and find out what I need to get at the Jay C Grocery Store in Salem on my way home.

I do not, however, try to read as I am going down the road.

I am faced with a dilemma here.

Each time I see someone looking at their precious phone as I am driving,  I want to honk my horn.  I abstain from such a reaction because I do not want to startle the poor fool and potentially cause them more pain than they already have in their lives.  But…it is tempting.

If you make a habit of texting and driving, go ahead and look around your closet and pick out something you can wear at your funeral…or something you can wear as you are visiting my funeral.  I have a distinct fear this is not going to work out very well for one of us!  I hope and pray I am mistaken.

Know that when I speak the rights on these pages, I am not at a stop sign or a stop light.

Danny Johnson