It's not chewing gum and spitting

A few months ago we were driving east down Sunset Blvd., past the 101. At the intersection with Western, we stopped for a red light. Coming south down Western Ave. we could hear the blare of a siren (the deep fire engine type, not the whiny police car type).

When the fire engine was within view, we also saw step in the crosswalk (going south as well) a young woman with a cell phone held up to her left ear, her back to the approaching emergency vehicle. The engine slowed and started to swing wide in preparation for a right turn from Western to Sunset. That is, it was going to turn and cross the crosswalk with the young woman on the cell phone. And I say it was going to, because it couldn't actually complete the turn because she was in the crosswalk, only a few steps from the curb, blocking where the engine would go. So the engine, siren-blaring, had to stop for a moment.

Our car being up at the front by the crosswalk, we could see well what she did in response to this situation. She put her other hand up to plug her right ear and kept talking on the phone. At no point did she glance over her shoulder to survey the noise that was interfering with her conversation. She did not retreat back to the curb, nor did she expedite her rate of travel to the other side.

The engine waited.

After a few seconds she was clear and the vehicle could proceed on its way. She passed in front of our car, then up on to the curb and continued south along the sidewalk.

As we were turning right, when could witness what she did. She finished up the conversation and put away her phone, then stopped at the bus stop about 50 feet down from the intersection. There was no bus anywhere close.

It must be nice to have that level of focus, to remain undaunted in the face of a world so desperately trying to distract one from the important task of getting across the street to wait for a bus.


[Still, I guess we must commend her for taking public transportation. And we were in a car at the time, not really helping the environment.

There is no moral high ground any more.]