Seatbelt, Schmeatbelt

I am so tired of the incessant chiming every time I (or my passenger) don't fasten the seatbelt. Because it's too easy just to wear that d@mn thing and get it over with, I've been devoting extensive amounts of time and brain power to figure out how to get the car to shut up about the seatbelt already.

I asked a friend to ask her ex to find out what wire you have to pull to make the ringing stop. He explained that circumventing this safety feature would be breaking the law (since the state law is that you have to wear your seatbelt) and thus there's nothing he can do. Strike one.

For a while I tried leaving the belt fastened, and just sitting on top of it. The fastened part on the right kept digging into my hip, though. Strike two.

I thought I had the whole thing cracked about ten days ago, when I remembered that there's a third seatbelt in the front seat. (Technically you can put the armrest down and squish someone in the middle of the front seat, so there's a seatbelt there.) I thought I would be able to fit the tab end of that seatbelt into the slot end of the driver's seatbelt and thus fool the machine, but nooooo! They made the tab on the third seatbelt a different shape from the driver's seatbelt on purpose, so it won't fit into the driver's seatbelt slot. Grr!!!!

I don't mind wearing the seatbelt when I'm on the highway, but I don't really feel like bothering with it when I'm making the 8-minute run from home to the office, or running short errands around the neighborhood. I realize that the majority of accidents happen within 25 miles of home, but come on. (I was also reminded by several people that even though I may be a good driver, there are tons of idiots out there and you can never be too careful. Whatever.)

I just did some Googling on the topic, and found a few forums that give the same (complicated!) list of steps for de-activating the seat belt alarm. I'll have to print them out and try them later. Or I can just continue to turn up the radio and not make any cell phone calls with my seat belt off. (The chime seems to wreak havoc on my reception — imagine that!)