Dale Miller

I was filing my nails while driving along Highway 10 and was reminded of yet another law we don’t need on the books: 27-51-1504. Use of a handheld wireless telephone when driving.

Now, I think it’s a really bad idea to try and send or receive messages while driving. That’s not the point. The point is that the legislation is a) too specific, and b) unnecessary.

This law prevents text messaging or email, but does not prevent web-surfing or, for instance, writing blog entries. It also only addresses one behavior, and not others, such as putting on makeup or, say, filing one’s nails.

The reason it’s unnecessary is that we already have “27-51-104. Careless and prohibited driving.” on the books. If a person is doing anything which pulls their attention away from the road, they are already in violation of that law. Was there really a need to add another one?

I realize that legislators are not nearly as concerned about safety as they are about the appearance of “doing something”, but must we have more pointless laws?

This rant has been brought to you by the letters G and N and by the number 17.

I spent yesterday evening at the Rep watching “Follie Holidays”. This is their annual presentation by the young people that they have in their summer program. It was quite entertaining. It’s wonderful to see kids learning song and dance and performing. It gives me hope for the arts in Arkansas. They did a wonderful rendition of “I Sing the Body Electric” that actually brought goose bumps to my arms.

It was a very enjoyable evening. The next Rep show is “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. I have a ticket for December 25th. Anyone want to join me?

Today, for the first time in a couple of months, my Wii told me I was “overweight” rather than “obese”. That is progress, even if only in a small way. I have put myself on a diet of ~1,000 calories per day. Seriously cutting back on my intake is the only I’ve ever successfully lost weight in the past, and it seems to be working again. Now if I can only keep it up for another fifteen pounds or so…

I have now spent more on dentistry care in the past month than in the previous several years. I was having pains in an upper left molar when I went in for my most recent checkup. The dentist examined it and determined I needed a crown. In attempting this simple procedure, it was found that I needed a root canal first. So, off to the endodontist for that procedure. (A small aside, my previous dentist did root canals himself. Having now had one done by a skilled endodontist, I will never let another general dentist attempt one on me, Dr. Penney was *excellent*). Once the root canal had been performed (and paid for), it was back to the dentist for the crown. I now have a temporary and an appointment in two weeks for the permanent crown. Dental insurance is good, but I’m still out of pocket over $1,000 for all this.

Just another expense that I really don’t need at the moment.

I’m one of those people who read nutrition labels. Okay, that’s not quite true. I *scan* nutrition labels to find out the calorie count. It rarely keeps me from eating something, but at least I know why I’m not losing weight.

Today for lunch I fixed a California Pizza Kitchens pizza. The nutrition label said that one serving was 1/5 of a pizza. One-fifth? Come on now, let’s use something reasonable. I don’t know anyone who slices a pizza into 5 sections (or any multiple thereof). Make it a sixth or a fourth and I’ll at least agree that it’s a reasonable division. Of course, I consider one-half to be a single serving. Back to that whole not-losing-weight thing again.