Herb Benham: Cell phone yakking in the car talk of the town
| Thursday, Jul 23 2009 01:42 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Jul 23 2009 01:42 PM
Who did I think I was?
In the column about driving a car without air conditioning, I mentioned that making phone calls was a challenge. Open the windows, and hearing was difficult. Close them and one risked launching into a flop sweat.
Response was swift and absent sympathy.
One woman suggested that I might have been getting away with driving and talking on the phone because of my massive stature in the community. And if that didn't get me a free pass, my wife's City Council position guaranteed it.
I'll tell you about my stature. It's 5-foot-10-and-quarter inches and shrinking.
This note came from Eric Standridge:
"You might want to reconsider talking on your cell phone while driving (I recommend parking under a shade tree) because a ticket will cost you about $130 bucks. I know because I got one.
"I didn't think they enforced it because everyone does it including the police themselves. The new law is good because the phone does distract. I'm trying to save you a ticket. Good luck with the car."
My bad. I should have mentioned that I use a Bluetooth in the car.
***
Audrey Cochran wrote to give a wider perspective on cars and air conditioning:
"Car air conditioners are a fairly recent invention. I remember my first visit to Bakersfield almost 70 years ago. My parents were taking the family from LA to Oregon and my mother looked in the rear view window at my brother and I and was so concerned at our red faces and glazed eyes that she insisted our father stop at the next restaurant on 99.
"We went inside and Dad ordered a glass of buttermilk for each of us, into which my mother sprinkled lots of salt. We used to see cars with canvas bags hanging on them a la evaporative coolers. I think there were also some which fit into open windows."
Audrey's brother responded and says he "still remembers the taste of the cooler canvas bags -- bad."
***
What's a man (or a woman, given a similar situation) to do? I could spend $1,800 and have the air conditioning fixed in the almost 20-year-old Lexus or I could heed the advice of caller Gil Nolasco . Nolasco bought a truck in Paso Robles in the spring only to discover that the air conditioning was not in tip-top shape. It worked as long as the ambient temperature outside was 30 below zero.
Nolasco bought a canister of Arctic Freeze, which includes a NASA- approved sealant along with the Freon. NASA-approved got my attention because if it works in space, it should work on I-5.
Nolasco spent about $34 at Kragen's and put it in in June. He is now six weeks into air-conditioning delight. Sunday, I bought some Arctic Freeze, but I haven't used it in because if I put the Freeze down the wrong hole, there could be a mushroom cloud downtown that would envelope the Padre and Bill Lee's.
Report to follow.
***
It appears from the response to the column on being measured in the doctor's office that the height chart is off in just about every office in town. This note is from Sylvia Huecker.
"I am of Norwegian extraction; I got the 'tall' gene, so at 5'-11" I was taller than all of the girls and most of the boys in my high school class of 50 students. Being tall has certain advantages, especially for basketball and reaching things on the top shelf. As a teenage girl I didn't appreciate the gift I'd been given. It took some maturity before I realized that it was okay for me to marry a man shorter than me (and make it last for more than 52 years).
"Recently, on a visit to the doctor my height was measured at 5"7' 1/2. When I ordered trousers from the Tall catalog as I had done for years, it was necessary to shorten the legs. The good news, my beloved and I are pretty nearly the same height now. I guess there are certain advantages to being short."
