WE'RE ALL TREKKIES NOW!

Honolulu's "cell phone ban" went into effect yesterday, meaning that you can no longer use a cell phone in your car unless it is totally "hands-free," leaving those hands free to do other things like tune the radio, rummage in the glove box or smack the rambunctious kids in the back seat who should be buckled in anyway. (There's a fine for being unbuckled too.)

There was a booming business in Bluetooth headsets at my cell provider's retail store yesterday where I dropped a hundred bucks just to look like Uhura, the communications officer of the Starship Enterprise; not much of a fashion accessory, I must decorate it with Swarovski crystals or invent an earring that does the same job --THAT'S MY IDEA!

So now I have this thing that no self-respecting baby boomer would wear if it were a hearing aid and am not sure I will ever really use it --top-down in my Miata is pretty noisy for phone calls, although the savvy young sales clerk assures me my earpiece has the best noise reduction technology, although he didn't really say what kind of noise. I mean, most phone calls are noise. I guess I'll get used to the thing, although it means I have to set myself up before I start driving: insert the earpiece, make sure it's connected, become well-practiced in voice-activated dialing and answering. I don't even have a radio in my car; it's become a sanctuary for solitary thinking, and maybe I'll make an effort to keep it that way. I only ever make and receive calls in the car on a sort of emergency basis anyway: to announce how late I will be for work because I'm stuck in a traffic jam caused by the street sweepers on the interstate cleaning the potholes, or to answer my husband's "I'm at the grocery store, do you need anything?" queries.

I've never been an early adopter of new technology (not that this is new, but the REQUIREMENT is) so this seems like an imposition, something new to learn and get used to, against my will. Not that I think banning texting and video games while driving is a bad thing. (It just shows that common sense doesn't always prevail; a Honolulu bus driver was caught texting while driving a bus!) Ah, for the days of being tethered to black Bakelite telephones with cords you could play with while talking to a friend, no call-waiting, no caller ID (well, that IS an improvement).

I saw one animated young woman in a car today, apparently talking wildly to herself, gesturing madly with the hand in which she would ordinarily have been holding her phone. I had the impression she was not paying any more attention to driving -- possibly less --than she would have two days ago.

To be really safe, I should have got the "beam me up" version. I think they were all out.