Holy Smokes!

Today was another frustrating day at the library. Yesterday was merely a harbinger of things to come.

I started out trying to get the GoPro rig to work so I could film a craft project. Let's just say it did not go well, and I will try again tomorrow.

We also had a flood of returns like we rarely saw even before the COVID kerfuffle, and we were shorthanded today.

My back is also aching quite a lot, so hopping up and down to help people, plus bouncing between tasks, took a toll.

I'm so done with today.

But there was also one other thing, nay, one other person, that irritated me severely.

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While carrying video equipment back and forth, I noticed a foul stench in the air in our foyer. A foul stench that rarely intrudes at all, though it has been known to linger on some returned items. It was a particularly rank smell of cheap tobacco.

I don't like tobacco smoke in general, but to my untrained nose, this was probably from the cheapest smokes money can buy. It was foul. and sure enough, there was an old man sitting on our bench by the front door just a few feet away from our sign that clearly says, "no smoking within 20 feet of building entrance."

Even if it weren't a legal matter, one would hope smokers would have some courtesy. But apparently not. He did move after I asked him to not smoke by our door, though.

Later on, he came inside to charge his laptop. He had finished his cigarette, but there was still a powerful lingering odor surrounding him. And when he left, Febreze was liberally applied in the area he had occupied.

On the one hand, I have a very laissez faire attitude toward personal habits. On the other hand, tobacco is an objectively destructive addiction.

I strongly advise any smokers reading this to kick the habit. Or at least realize that some of us have health problems you may trigger, even when you aren't actively smoking. I know some people smoke once in a while without smelling like old ashtray all the time, but even so, it's just another chain holding you back while keeping you beholden to the tobacco industry.