I lent my my Kubota SVL 75-2 compact track loader to a good friend of mine to spread a couple hundred tons of gravel. He said another friend of his would be operating it who is an experienced heavy equipment operator. I was fine with that. The loader only had 60 hours on the clock as it is my spare machine. I keep it indoors and in immaculate condition. The operator even commented to my friend on the like new condition of my loader.

I have been stopping by every day to grease, clean, and fuel the machine. Things were fine until today when I get in and it reeks of cigarette smoke and there are ashes on the instrument panel. I spent two hours cleaning the whole interior of the machine and ran my ozone generator in the cab.

IME "some" should be replaced with "many," if not "most."

E.g.: Where I used to be employed there was a spot outdoors smokers would congregate. The company had provided a rather good-sized sand-filled bucket for butts. Yet the entire area was littered with cigarette butts on the ground

The common behavior of many, if not most smokers is one of the reasons I'm pleased I'm no among their ranks.

Many of them will get their fix right outside the lobby door. As soon as the door opens, the back-draft draws the smoke inside for all to enjoy.

I used to have the V-Tail on the rental line at Our Little Airport. I did all the check-out flights for would-be renters and I was anal about pointing out the very visible "No Smoking" placard on the panel.

One frequent renter pilot used it for his company business; he ferried employees around the state. The first time that I found cigarette butts in the ash tray, I reminded him politely of my "No Smoking" policy. The second time, I informed him that he was no longer welcome to rent the airplane.

Dipping is just as bad. Nice big plug as you open your car door. Mike Leach the MS. state coach even dips during press conferences. Classy!

Back when smoking was still allowed in bars and restaurants, I was eating a very large cut of prime rib at my favorite pub. I knew the "chef" so I often got larger cuts. I also enjoy horseradish. To the point where once, the guy next to me at the bar who was smoking complained to me about the smell. I just smiled. He didn't see the irony.

It is a filthy habit. Smoke free…21years + 3 months. But be my quest.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Dipping is just as bad. Nice big plug as you open your car door. Mike Leach the MS. state coach even dips during press conferences. Classy!

That's the worst. Most disgusting tobacco-related habit there is. Cups and bottles full of slime everywhere.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Dipping is just as bad. Nice big plug as you open your car door. Mike Leach the MS. state coach even dips during press conferences. Classy!

That's the worst. Most disgusting tobacco-related habit there is. Cups and bottles full of slime everywhere.

GF's son "Dips". An attractive boy of 26 who has a good job with a bright future. He meets some beautiful women his age who suddenly get turned off when he "dips".

Unfortunately, he's totally clueless.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Dipping is just as bad.

That's the worst. Most disgusting tobacco-related habit there is. Cups and bottles full of slime everywhere.

My first assigned office had a large (several feet across) brown stain on the carpet behind/under the desk when I moved into it.

Turns out that a previous occupant was a major dipper. Rather than getting a new spit cup every time, he had taken to spitting in 2 liter soda bottles, only tossing them when they got full. He kept his spit bottle in the footwell under the desk, and of course, left the lid off so that he could more easily spit in it. Story goes that he had knocked over his nearly full 2 liter bottle of tobacco spit one day while rushing out of the office, and didn't realize it until he returned to his office the next day.

So I got to sit above the dried stain of 2 liters of old tobacco spit for several years until the carpets were eventually replaced.

Dip spit is disgusting. I never dipped, mainly because the guys I knew who did grossed me the fuck out with it.

I used to be a smoker. There's no real way to be a considerate smoker, and I tried. The smell goes somewhere it shouldn't, it goes with you when you don't want it to, and eventually someone's car seat or headliner gets a burn hole in it when it's least convenient. In fact, I had a weekend stand with this really sweet gal in Tampa once who was also a smoker. I asked if I could smoke in her car and she said I could as long as I didn't put a burn hole in anything. It was the only time I did, and wow did I feel like an asshole. But for all that, I was at least trying not to bother people with it. Being smoker who just doesn't care is the worst.

My father initially was no longer welcome at my house after my two year old son crawled through ashes my father had flicked all over my back porch. As a former smoker, I saw it for the "fuck you" that it was. Now he's no longer welcome because he's a drunk asshole, but it's all the same ball of wax.

I'm grateful I was able to kick tobacco for good back on Thanksgiving of 2010, and I pray I never see fit to pick it back up ever again.

At the risk of being attacked without mercy, I will add to this discussion.

I am a cigarette smoker, have been for about 55 years. I do not smoke in other peoples' homes or automobiles. I do not smoke in my home, only on the patio or in the garage (with ventilation).

I have watched as the private property rights of small business owners have been undermined by non-smokers' claims of some invented "right to clean air" resulting in anti-smoking laws in retail establishments, bars, restaurants, and other venues. What part of "private property" are you folks having the most difficulty with, really? You have no constitutional right to walk into a bar; when you do so you are there on sufferance for the purpose of transacting business with the property owner on such terms and conditions as he chooses to invoke over his private property.

Public property includes public buildings, streets, parks, and other places held in common ownership by all citizens. A "place of public accommodation" is not the same thing at all, it remains private property.

News flash! Tobacco has been a major export crop for the US since pre-Revolution days, and taxes on tobacco products have funded a huge portion of the public budget. Does anyone think, even for a minute, that those taxes are going to go away when tobacco is eliminated in North America? Hell no! The bureaucracy will remain at full force and the taxes will be shifted to the next item on the agenda of the powers that be.

I try to be as courteous of others as possible. I continue to be amazed by the mindset of some people that allows them to villainize me because of my personal choices that have no appreciable effect on their lives. I won't ask them to lick my ashtray but I will tell them to kiss my ass when I am on my own property doing a perfectly lawful thing (and paying dearly in taxes for the privilege).

Rant over.

Yeah, I used to be overly sensitive to people complaining about it when I smoked, too.

When I used to take my squad in for service at the local Mom & Pop garage, if the son serviced it, it came back nice and clean. If the old man did it, it came back reeking of pipe smoke.

I changed garages.



.

I don’t care if people smoke, I’ll just move out the the area. It’s the littering that bothers me. If cigs were all non filters the first hard rain would wash them away. Those damn filters live forever. Littering cig butts just bug me.

quote:

Posted by Chris42:

“The World is my ashtray”

I saw this happen: A woman tossed her still-burning butt on the sidewalk. A guy picked it up, said to the woman, "Ma'am, I believe that you dropped this," and he dropped the still burning butt into the open shopping bag that the woman was carrying.

There is an LJS/KFC in the next city over. In the past we ate there maybe monthly. Suprising how the management of a place can make it or break it. So a year or so ago they got a new manager. A mean black woman. As we were leaving one day she was outside and I pointed out to her all the butts in the flower bed. She said "wadda want me to do 'bout it". So I told her to watch her employees because they were the litters. She clearly didn't care.

We stopped eating there. But gave in last month because we were going right past. Same flower bed, same pile of butts. We may go back. Someday.

I'm a almost 50 year smoker.
I smoke outside and not in my car.
I stay away and try to be downwind of non-smokers because it's my habit, not theirs.
When I was in the Army you "field stripped" your filter cigarettes and still do today.
At work it is not allowed in the shop, but if the doors are open it's OK.
I enjoy the taste of a good smoke with coffee or a good whiskey and the isolation from others who don't/haven't.
Whiskey, beer, smokes and good food is what is important to me.
I will die no matter what , might as well die happy.

I'm aboard the dislike train on inconsiderate smokers also. Policed up many butts in basic training & tech school while in the military, none of which I put on the ground.

What I do like, though is a dozen guys beefing about smokers - 1 considerate smoker weighs in with his own perspective and he's called overly sensitive. Good stuff.

LoboGunLeather, as an ex-smoker of 40 years (quit in 2010), I understand and agree with every point in your rant.