Why Would Anyone Text And Drive? You'd Think The Answer Is Obvious...

I guess we've always had cell phones. Okay, not always, but ever since Motorola came out with that flip phone--the one after "the Brick," we've had one. Now, we haven't had the fanciest of phone, or the best phones, but we've been able to use them basically for emergencies.

Because of this, we were never big texters. We had those Nokia phones--good phones, reliable, but  impossible for texting. Okay, not impossible to text anything, but it might as well have been. Younger generations will never know the pure hell it was texting on those old cellphones. It took years until we got smartphones.

It was because of my experience with those old cellphones that I could never understand why people felt the need to text while they drove. It never made sense to me, especially knowing how dangerous it is to text while driving.

But then, once we got smart phones, it made sense. Texting on a smartphone has become as natural as talking. On more than one occasion I've gotten a text while driving--good thing it doesn't happen very often--and I've picked up the phone and my natural instinct is to just click a quick message.

It happened again today while I was driving home.

Smartphones can do many things--so many more than the Nokias or the Motorolas--and one of those functions is Siri, at least on iPhones. When I got the text today, my first instinct was to text back, but instead I activated Siri and asked her to text a response to my wife. It was pretty slick.

There are places where even doing what I did is against the law, and I can understand this. Any distraction is exactly that, a distraction. But, for me today, Siri made my commute--and the commute for everyone around me--a little better, a little safer...and that's a good thing.

My New Favorite App...Letgo

I'd seen the ads many many times, but I never took action.

Until last weekend.

I don't know why I did it, but for some reason, I downloaded the Letgo app on my phone. Hours later, when the time had passed when I should have been asleep, I was still looking at the app, checking out more and more stuff. I checked out refrigerators. I checked out drones. I checked out musical instruments. I checked out sewing machines. I checked out cars even. The more I looked, the more there was to see, and it all was within my general vicinity. Heaven help me if I decided to look for things in another state. I was hooked.

And the strangest part was, I really didn't know why I was hooked. I mean--yes, we were in the market for a fridge to put in the garage, but the other stuff, like sewing machines? We're not in the market for those, but I have a co-worker who really likes sewing machines so I thought I'd check out to see what the local sewing machine prices were like.

The fact that the app held my attention for so long baffled me, until I realized one thing, one explanation that answered my baffling question.

The app is basically a digital thrift store.

If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you know I have a fondness (some call a weakness...) for thrift stores. They contain pretty much nothing that we need, but I like to see what's there. The last couple of times I've gone to a thrift store, I even checked out--yep, you guessed it--sewing machines. Not to buy them, but to see just what they had. It resulted in fun conversations between my co-worker and I the next time at work.

I don't know how pleased the Letgo people will be to have me as a subscriber. Like my visits to actual thrift stores, I usually don't buy anything. I said earlier, there's not much there we need. The same goes for the app. Also, Letgo keeps wanting me to sell stuff. I know there are things in my house I could exchange for legal tender. I probably should, and maybe I will one day. But for now, I am finding it fascinating just to do a little app window shopping. Because there's just so much to see.