It’s a happy day when you’ve just had your car washed. You can choose to wash it yourself, if you have that kind of time…I don’t.

Or you can take it to your local neighborhood scrub-a-dub-dub place.

There are various incarnations of these facilities: Harvs, Scrub Boys, Wash-N-Wait, Touchless-Express, Auto-Scrubbers, and the list can go on and on.

So you have this beautifully shiny, possibly even waxed, vehicle and you’re flying down the highway heading to work, home, or play.

And that’s when tragedy strikes. Some completely unaware person in front of you decides that going 80mph down the highway is the right time for them to bother to clean their car. And on go the wipers and washers.

Unfortunately, at those speeds, and really, anything above 25mph, the water coming from the nozzles on the hood of the car does not contain itself to the car. It begins to spray and fly all around the vehicle, and onto any cars behind it or beside it.

Now your perfectly clean car is covered in someone else’s car-filth. You either have to suffer the humiliation of having a filthy windshield that you can’t see out of now, or you have to turn on your wipers. This causes an additional issue.

If you turn your wipers on, but don’t run the washers, you are now smearing dirty water across your own windshield, creating streaks and lines which serve to further blur your vision. If you choose the washer option, you’re now doing the same thing they did, creating problems for the people behind you and around you.

Just like braking, it creates a long chain of events, with everyone down the entire highway suddenly having to run their wipers and washers all because some idiot in their Lexus SUV can’t be bothered to take their vehicle to the cleaners once in a while.

Folks - be courteous and be aware. Do not use your wipers with washers unless you are the only person on the road. Because if you do…be prepared for me to flash my brights and blare my horn at you for making my windshield a complete and utter nightmare.

I really do hate to be redundant here, but it’s just so topical.

In California, a bill was passed in September 2006 regarding the use of mobile phones while driving. However, this new law won’t take effect until July 1, 2008 (which is over half a year away), and the penalty for using your phone while driving is not a deterrent at all (and it has several exceptions).

When you can get out of a ticket for $20 (for your first offence, and $50 for your second), just carry some extra cash and keep on talking, right?

I’ve seen an increased number of people driving around on the phone, and not just holding it up to their ears but actually cradling it between their ear and shoulder. They are driving down the road with their head tilted off to one side.

How on earth can you see the van full of children that you’re about to plough in to, if your eye line is underneath the dashboard??

Please do the world a favour, buy yourself a headset, learn how to use it, and remember that most of us are not important enough to NEED to take that call while going 80mph down the highway.

Remember when people had pagers? You could be notified if you had an urgent call to take, then make the call WHEN IT WAS APPROPRIATE.

Oh for the good old days.

As I sat at dinner the other night, watching the two ladies at the table across from me, both on their cell phones….I wondered, do they even realize how insane they look?

How can you go to dinner with someone and then spend half of the evening on the phone talking to someone else?

And even more so, how can you be so inconsiderate to the people around you to be screaming into your mobile phone in a restaurant!

Awareness people! Realize that the world is bigger, and much more interesting than you are! Well, at least for these two people who obviously were too busy to socialize and interact with someone sitting right in front of them.

Bridging that gap between appropriate and inappropriate is sometimes difficult. We live in a world of technology that makes it easier than ever to reach family, friends, business partners, and customers with the mere touch of a button.

And instantly, they are there. Because they too have the technology and don’t hesitate to use it no matter where they are.

Technology has a downside…it has made our lives much less personal than before. I myself have fallen victim to technology, and love to send text messages. I find that sending a text message is MUCH more appropriate that picking up the phone sometimes, especially if I am in a public place. But even then, looking around a room to see everyone punching buttons madly into their phone takes some of the joy out of life too.

I recently realized as well, I need to make a change, so I’ve decided that I can no longer stand to talk on the phone. I get bored very easily with what the other person has to say when I’m on the phone, so it’s time to stop…if I can’t sit face to face with you and have a conversation, it’s just not the same.

I want to be aware of your rich and interesting facial expressions, the intonation in your voice that is often lost over a digital connection (and especially in an email or text message), and I want to know that you are indeed paying attention to me when I am talking to you instead of finishing up that last email to your boss before leaving for the day.

Being aware of the world around you is what it’s all about. Cliché to say “stop and smell the roses” but do people even realize there are still roses any more?

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” - Leo Tolstoy