Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Cell Phones and Irate People

Ok, ok, so feel on this. I'm at the gas station last Monday, you know, giving the car the old heave ho (fill up). I'm standing there pumping my gas and in an effort to be efficient, I decided to call a friend via cellular telephone (perhaps you have heard of these). I'm now pumping AND talking, doing two things at once as opposed to doing one thing at once.

Suddenly the woman pumping gas next to me begins yelling at me. I didn't make out what she was saying at first as I am not accustomed to being spoken to, much less yelled at, by strangers at gas stations. And afterall, I was on the phone. I eventually turned around to hear the commotion and now a man (who was also pumping his gas) joined the woman in the shouting. They were yelling, "Get off the phone! Get off the phone!!" The panic in their voice quickly alarmed me.

"What?" I asked them, pulling the receiver end of the phone away from my mouth but the listeny part was still up against my ear. "What are you talking about?" I pled ignorance. But I knew exactly why they were yelling I just was so completely baffled that someone, nay, some two people were actually yelling at me because of it.

"You will cause an explosion!! Back away from the car!!" And the man was ushering me away from the pump with his hand. "What are you talking about? 'Cause an explosion?' What in the world?" I was upset by now that they were making such a big deal about it. It was like they were imagining me holding a flaming torch instead of a little, plastic, cell phone.

"The sparks will cause an explosion! It's been documented!! Get off the f*#%in' phone!!!!!!" Now honestly, help me out here people. Sure, sure, I have seen the 20/20 episode where they did a deal on a case where a woman on her cell phone at a gas station caused a fire (not an explosion). This one freak incident now apparently warrants the claim that explosions are caused by cell phones and that they have been "documented." Give me a freaking break. I have never seen sparks fly from my cell phone. I have talked at the pump many a time and have seen no explosions. Why all the fuss people?

I wanted to say, "Holy S&#%!!! Take off your digital watch!! Oh my God!! It will cause a freaking explosion!!" Or maybe I should have said, "Holy crap!! Don't pull your car into a gas station it will cause an explosion!! Don't you know all the wires and engine heat under the hood could cause an EXPLOSION!!!!" But I didn't say any of that. I simply gave him and the frantic woman a dirty look and kept talking.

2 comments:

corbs said...

what actually happened is that this man and woman got a forward from my mother on how cell phones cause explosions and how there are syringes tied to gas pumps to spread AIDS. she sends them to me, because "Brent, this one is real, I just wanted to warn you. Love, Mom"

To which, i inevitably respond in a despondent tone telling her that she would only have 1 ulcer if it weren't for all the forwards she gets. But she's a sweet gal, and a hell of a good cook

Anonymous said...

That happened to a friend of mine. Except they lynched him. Gee I miss him. If only I had called an hour later.