(*le sigh...*) What ever happened to using your imagination to entertain yourself on the road while in the passenger seat?

Today, as dad was taking my sister and I to the airport to pickup mom, I saw at least three cars riding by with televisions on. I can understand having one if you're going to be on the road for three or four plus hours or longer, but for an hour or less? Or--worse yet--for ten freaking minutes? Heaven forbid should people (*gasp*) have to pry themselves away from a digital screen for that long! (Note sarcasm. )

If you ask me, this is nothing more than a sign that some of the children and parents of today are turning into mindless drones; totally reliant on outside forces to think for them. The reason why I include the parents in this is because, to my understanding, their justification for letting their kids watch TV in the car is so they can keep quiet. (That alone has a 95% success rate.)

Don't get me wrong; some of these people I saw on the road today were probably on a long trip and didn't want their kids to be board while on it, but otherwise I don't see the value in it.

While I'm on the topic of TV's in the car, here's a "horror story" I heard from my mom (mind you, the only other drivers that are on the road longer than she is as a result of work are taxi and truck drivers): somewhere on the highway when she was making her way to a job site, she found some guy in an SUV watching the morning news while he was driving. I don't know about you guys, but I get freaked out enough just seeing people using their cellphones while on the road*. Hearing about this is enough to make me consider going horse and buggy somewhere in the near future. =_=;

*Please note- I haven't come across any drivers yet that were reading the newspaper or an actual roadmap, so I can't attest to how they are. And of the cellphone users, the "texters" are the ones I that I fear the most and for a good reason: I nearly got hit by one! Not fun.