Easing her smoke-caused headache (4/26/04)

I buried Daphne up to her scrawny neck the other day. Then I poured a gallon of water on her head. I hope she lives. She looked awfully pathetic when I first met her.

Daphne is a bush, excuse me shrub, I’ve been coveting for a long time and finally ordered from a catalog. She arrived surrounded by packing peanuts and wrapped in plastic. From the looks of her she did not enjoy her journey through the mail. She is supposed to have deliciously fragrant white flowers and variegated leaves.

I have placed her beside a red twig dogwood to compliment her expected beauty and to give her a friend while she recuperates from her mistreatment. Everybody needs a friend when they are recovering.

She arrived on a day when I was losing a battle with a headache and upset stomach caused by second-hand smoke. I had gone out to lunch with the ladies from work to celebrate somebody’s birthday three days late.

We went to a little place with great chicken but no non-smoking section. The haze and stench of tobacco permeated the place. My eyes burned and my sinuses immediately filled up in protest.

It didn’t matter that the people I was with were careful to aim their cigarettes away from me and the other non-smokers in the group. There was no escape from the assault on my senses.

I won’t go back there again unless a miracle occurs and the air inside becomes clear.

The older I get, the more intolerant I am of smokers. I am becoming a firm believer that people should practice their vices in private.

I hope someday establishments learn just how much business they lose because they cater to the less than 25-percent of people who smoke instead of the rest of us.

When I was in college, I listened to many of the other students complain to me that they couldn’t go out to a bar or a restaurant in this area without coming home smelling like an ashtray. In the states they were from smoking in public places was banned. Too bad more states don’t follow their lead.

It seems that since non-smokers make up the majority of people in this country, they should be the ones who decide that polluting the air and causing illness in those who don’t chose to smoke is not allowed.

The percentage of smokers goes down every year but businesses still cater to them. I feel like I’m tilting at windmills when I complain. I feel that I am somehow being intolerant. It is irrelevant that I or others have to suffer for the choices of a vocal minority.

It was so nice when we went out for my birthday in February. The place we chose had great food, good ambiance and best of all was completely smoke free. We don’t have that option in this town.

Burying Daphne enabled me to go outside and breathe enough fresh air to get rid of the worst of the headache. Tea and toast took care of the upset stomach.

Nothing has eased the irritation at having to put up with an afternoon of misery just to have lunch with some great women.

I have a shopping trip scheduled this weekend. I hope to find a lot of new friends for Daphne as the tulips and daffodils that now surround her will retreat underground in a couple of weeks. I am looking for an excuse to get out and enjoy the nice spring weather and see plants I’ve only seen in photographs.

It is not by accident that nurseries don’t allow smoking. Plants are big business and companies do whatever they need to in order to make their products attractive to the buying public.

This includes giving them the proper growing conditions, nutrients and lots of fresh air. It also includes banishing the use of tobacco in the vicinity. Plant people tend to value clean air. So does Daphne.

I hope she likes her new home and lives a long and productive life and never takes up smoking.[[In-content Ad]]