It was the end of summer; time for one last dip in the lake before cold weather sets in.  My son went swimming with his friends…and his cellphone.  (It’s interesting what you can find out from Facebook.)

Updated March 2010:

State cell phone and texting while driving law highlights include:

• Handheld Cell Phones: 6 states (Calif., Conn., N.J., N.Y., Ore. and Wash.), D.C. and the Virgin Islands prohibit all drivers from using handheld cell phones while driving.
  • Except for Washington, these laws are primary enforcement—an officer may cite a driver for using a handheld cell phone without any other traffic offense taking place.

Not long ago, I watched a sane, smart, normally rational person have a meltdown because their Blackberry wasn’t working. There was panic, angry words and deeds. Being cut off from emails, even for a day, seemed unfathomable to them. It wasn’t that they couldn’t get their email on their computer, they just couldn’t connect in the car, standing in the supermarket line, at their son’s baseball game…anywhere…maybe even some places that we don’t want to know.

That was one of those “ah-ha” moments for me, when I knew in my heart of hearts that that was wrong. I didn’t want to become so attached to a small rectangle of plastic that it could control my mood and my life, affecting the people around me.