smoking, bong water and other disgusting stuff

At work, we, like most business establishments, don't allow smoking inside the building. In Florida that is also true of restaurants. In fact, I was kind-of taken aback last summer when we traveled north and I can't remember where, but when we went out to eat, the hostess asked "How many in your party" and "Smoking or non-smoking?"

It had just been a long time since I was asked "Smoking or non-smoking?" because here there is no choice. If you're eating, your not smoking. In fact, it's one of the things that drove me to quit 10 years ago. Smoking got so inconvenient that it just stopped being worth the hassle. I understand since then, it's also gotten very expensive. I didn't know how expensive until I was filling out a credit application for the new car last summer. After listing the mortgage and any other outstanding debt, it asked if I smoked and, if so, what was the annual cigarette budget. Well no, that's a lie, but it wouldn't surprise me.

That wasn't what I wanted to talk about though. I just got off on the restaurant tangent. I wanted to talk about smoking and work.

Like I said, here, you have to go outside if you want to smoke. Unfortunately for me, the smoking congregation point is very near our front door, and in the course of the day, I travel between buildings a lot. There's an ash tray thing there that's very small and cylindrical on the top with holes going down the sides so you can flick your ashes in it. The skinny cylinder goes to the floor, where it broadens out to hold more ashes. Best as I can figure, there's rain water or something in there mixed with all the ashes, because every time I walk by that thing, the aroma of bong water hits my nose. It's very nasty. I wish they'd move it elsewhere, but I guess I'm stuck with it for now. That smell just doesn't go away. Oh, and I know what you're thinking. Yes, I went to college and though I forgot what bong water smells like, when that ash tray started stinking, the memories came roaring back.