On my way to the pool earlier this week I stopped at the crosswalk by our small little town’s only hospital to let a couple of hospital employees cross the road. Sounds like a clever little joke…

Why did the hospital employees cross the road?

Because they can’t smoke on hospital property.

This little old town of mine has changed quite a bit in the last ten years. Ten years ago, I sat at Burger King, and after eating my super yummy meal, joined nearly every other patron in this wonderful establishment, and fired one up. I think even the little kiddies were puffing away, along with their parents. Now our town has become smoke free.

Smoke free… What the hell does that even mean? Forty years ago nearly every farmer in this county raised tobacco. Now you have to look around like you just pulled out a doobie. Sad too because they are about to make that just fine.

Recreational. It will be recreational.

How about this? How about next time you have an irresistable urge to pull out a cowboy, you just smile real big and utter… recreational. See how that flies.

And these vapor people… I got a whole blog just dedicated to you guys who walk around looking like you’re playing bagpipes in the fog. In or out folks, are you in the club or not? I always expect to hear Amazing Grace come out of those things. And it’s usually a bony guy that looks like he’s been in the vegan camp for awhile.

Whew, I don’t know where that came from, sorry.

I will try to keep my focus on the poor hospital staff, but you know it’s going on all over town. Practally every bathroom in this town smells like a smoking parlor, but these guys are expected to walk off the property and meet up at a specific location… across the highway, just to get to the spot where smoking is tolerated. It looks like a game of Frogger.

And they do it.

Here is what I would love to see happen…

Every two or three months add an obstacle. After a year or so, traffic would stop just to see who could make it over to the smoking area in time to actually smoke. Trust me, they would do it, and smile the whole time.

Today, it rained about two and a half inches in two hours. I thought of those puffers of smoke today, and I remember a gentler time, a time when your only worry was whether you could get your lighter to work in a downpour that you watched from the comfort of your car, or some other outside haven, protected from the rain, but those days are gone, here in our little progressive paradise.

God bless the puffers of smoke, who choose to stay the course.

ws