I love the sun roof in my car… I use it all year long… even on a mild winter day there is just something about the fresh air on my drive to work… most of my trip is rural..

As soon as I get close to Roanoke… there are several stoplights and today the driver of the car in front of me at every redlight let her cigarette dangle outside the window and was waving her other hand to get the smoke out of her car.. Really?  Meanwhile, it was all wafting into my car.. if you don’t like the smell of smoke and you smoke.. .then what do you think the people behind you in traffic think.. and then there is the flicking of the cigarette out the window when you are finished… like that is not littering…

Smokers would complain that “you just can’t smoke anywhere” anymore… but I say I don’t care if you smoke… I just don’t want your smoke inside my car… or in my lunch… I was having lunch with a friend the other day in downtown Roanoke… we were seated outside and there were two people chain smoking on the bench just outside the roped off area… Really?

I know smokers are frustrated that they can’t light up in restaurants anymore and think they have the right to light up wherever they want outside.. which would indicate that the rest of us aren’t entitled to fresh air while we eat… or while we sit in traffic on our way to work on a beautiful fall day…. but it is an invasive habit that not only affects the people who do it but those around it… 

I wonder if it would be offensive to a smoker for me to spray my perfume in a cloud around them for 5 to ten minutes straight while they were trying to take their smoke break and “enjoy” their cigarette?

This blog began as a simple vent about something that happened on my way into work and apparently is a hot button issue with many people.  I have no problem with *constructive* feedback and think it is healthy for people to share different points of view when they disagree but personal attacks are not the way to get a point across.

I avoided mentioning in the first blog I published that the woman in the car in front of me had two children in the car with her… and that truly I would have rather breathed the smoke than those poor young children who don’t have a choice and likely are subjected to it at home as well… because then it would have appeared like a personal judgment against her as a parent…

Below are some of the more than 30 comments I received on my facebook page and I appreciate every one of them:

Gina Clem writes : Karen,I am a smoker and I in no way was offended by your blog.We all have our own opinion and we are entitled to it.I don’t smoke in my house because my husband doesn’t smoke.I do smoke in our car and truck but with the window down.I don’t ...hold it out the window whiile sitting at a red light though.I also don’t mind that I can’t smoke in a resturant because I am respectful of other people.When I go outside to smoke I move away from the entrance and other people especially children.I NEVER smoke anywhere near a small child or baby.I carry an empty soda bottle with a lid and filled part way with water in my car for my ashes and to put it out in so it doesn’t go out the window.Smoking is a nasty habit but it can be done with respect of others.The problem lies in the fact that most people now days have no respect for anyone.

Tim Hand writes: I have nothing against nonsmokers and do try to respect them much like people who drink.I dont drink but don’t catergorize them are try to elemenate there exsistance by saying where they can drink.everyone says they respect others but to be honest the whole going against smokers issues is kinda going way out there.but thats my honest opinion.

Missy Neal Isner writes:  Ok, here is my 2 cents for what it’s worth. I am a smoker. I hate it and have tried several times to quit, but truly enjoy a smoke AFTER dinner. When we go out to eat, we NEVER smoke. we are there to eat, not smoke. We NEVER throw them out, as we are responsible for the cleanup, so we carry ashtrays in the car. I lost my mom 8 months ago to lung cancer and am reminded every time I light up. If I can save someone elses life by not smoking around them, I’m all for that and respect their right to clean air. :)

Jennifer Dowdy writes: I am a smoker as well, I do respect people who don’t smoke, however I work and pay 4 my car so if I want to smoke in it, that’s totally my choice. I do sit outdoors to have my meals so that I can smoke, u have the whole resterant, so just sit inside. We as smokers have very limited spaces to smoke in.

Lynne Kilburn writes:  I’m not a bumper sticker person, but I did see one once that I’d probably put on my car if I ever see it again. It said “The Earth is Not Your Ashtray!” I live in a town home community and it’s disgusting all the cigarette butts people just toss. It’s littering people! Pick up your butts!!!

Good luck to anyone who is trying to quit smoking I applaud you and hope that you can find a way to stop a habit that can lead to so much pain - It is a habit that caused my father to be diagnosed with bladder cancer a few years back and have his bladder removed… His life is not the same now but at least he is still here. 

After hearing my father talk about his chemo treatments and radiation treatments my heart would break.. he sounded so beat down and tired… he quit smoking and then subsequently found out he had bladder cancer the doctors said the heavy smoking he had done most of his life was the culprit.  He would have been proud of my blog if he had read it.