No, this is NOT the first day of autumn.  By a quirk of the calendorial conjuction of the earth and the sun, Fall doesn’t get here until later than usual this year.  Look for it to happen on Thursday the 23rd.  Ok, ok….in the western hemisphere it really begins just before midnight Wednesday on the east coast when it’s already Thursday everywhere east of that region.  Picky, picky.

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One of the things that Dave Statter at STATter911 likes to point out occasionally is the foibles of the “me generation.”  You know, the people who want to make sure that you realize that the world revolves around them.  They will go to a fire, for example, with their home video camera and take a video of themselves watching the fire, then post it on YouTube.  They will show up in the parking lots of sports stadiums or on the steps of courthouses while some notable event is taking place inside because “I want to be a part of history!”  You know what I’m referring to.

One of the outgrowths of this self-centered need for attention is the proliferation of so-called roadside memorials where people erect signs, crosses, piles of dead flowers and soggy teddy bears to draw attention to the fact that one of their loved ones (family or friend) died in a car crash there.  People used to go to a place of worship to grieve and pray for the victims’ souls, but now so few of them go to church anymore that they set up their candles and discarded toys in the front yard of some poor guy who had nothing to do with the demise of the victim.

This impromptu memorialization got so out of hand a few years ago that most of the states began enacting laws or highway regulations establishing some parameters on the practice.  In Illinois the law only permits roadside memorials for victims of drunk-driving accidents (with a 2-yr. limit on their existance).  But this was upsetting to a woman in Naperville whose son was killed by a “distracted driver” who was reaching for something that had fallen on the floor of his car.  Through her persistance she organized a lobbying effort to get the law changed to allow such memorials for several classes of reckless driving behavior, including distracted driving.  “(I wanted)  recognition for my son, but more importantly, awareness,” she told the news services.

This expanded law that goes into effect on January 1 allows you to purchase a standard sign for $150 that says “Reckless driving costs lives” and has room to add a name plaque.  After two years the highway department will take it down and return the sign to whoever paid for it.  Now let’s stop and think about this for a minute:  These people are now setting up signs to raise our awareness about distracted driving and putting them in places where they are designed to distract passing drivers and cause them to take their eyes off the road while reading them.  Am I alone in thinking that this really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense?  Am I?

Ok, let’s follow give some recognition to our equipment checksheets now and make sure we’re ready for the day.  I’m going to start the coffee and maybe put up a caffeine-awareness sign over the Bunn-O-Matic.  See you back in the day room.