Smokin', Judgin', and Vlad the Impaler
8/22/1

I�m listed in Google again, but oddly, I can�t get find me when I use the searches that got the hits to me.

I was reading someone�s old internet diary entries and I just didn�t get how they were. They got all upset that people smoked, not around them, just in general, but then felt guilty because they �judged� another person who stole something.

What? I�m assuming that the guilt due to judging is due to a mistranslation of Matthew 7 (but please read 6 also for context). When a person steals, they have broken the law. Knowing that they did this, you are not judging, the judgment has already been made, �Stealing is bad�. You are merely observing what you know to be true, that the person has stolen.

However, in this person�s anger toward smokers, and I can relate to some aspects of this, they were, in part, making their own judgments. I may be too generous to smokers when I assume that some don�t realize that it offends others. I consider second hand smoke a little less offensive than strong perfume. And I know that some who smoke and some who wear strong perfume don�t realize they offend me. They should know better, but�eh, there you go.

The smoker does steal from his family. Huh? Yes, he steals his presence from his grandchildren, spouse, etc. He does not, like the states who sued the tobacco companies, cost the health care system extra money. He actually costs them less, on average, due to his early death.

I used to smoke. But I started after the time when we were segregated from non-smokers. I smoked Camel Filters, preferably in a hard pack. The first two years that I smoked, I enjoyed it. The last year, I was trying to quit.

What finally allowed me to quit was a horrible chest cold I got. I couldn�t smoke for about a week anyway. This was after I had changed my smoking rules anyway.

I lived alone in an apartment but I would not smoke in any part of the apartment except the bathroom. I would sit on the bathmat and read a book and smoke. It was not unusual for Aisai to come in and find me sitting in the floor of the bathroom, reading. �Good book?� She�d ask.

I did a lot of reading in those days.

I recently went on a cigar kick. This was a few months ago and it only lasted for a few months. I really like dark colored Mexican cigars. They taste like really good dirt. I was irritated at the lameness of the alleged good cigars. But I�m rather over that now.

Now I want a Tamagotchi. I think Aisai will get me one for the gift basket for our 10-year anniversary. Currently, we have allowed each other to spend $100 each. I got her some cool stuff that she wouldn�t expect.

Oh, and did I mention that Aisai got me a little Vlad the Impaler [It�s a battlebot thing] when she went to Target yesterday. I have been at home with my lame hand and she got some food and the little action figure/vehicle toy. I didn�t open it. I don�t know if I really want to corrupt its serenity in that box.

And speaking of serene�which is a funny looking word, but the spell check seems to like it�, I can�t wait for our New Orleans vacation. Longwinded, Aisai�s sister, and her husband are going to take us around where they live to where alligators are. Freakish. Lousiana seems like a dangerous place.

That will be Tuesday. We drive down Monday. Wednesday and Thursday we�ll putter around New Orleans. Friday we have to get out of our cabin and we�ll probably stay at a Motel 6 or so on Friday night. Friday we might see a plantation or something. I wanted to see the Tobasco plant, but it�s 3.5 hours from our cabin. We drive back Saturday.

It really works to our advantage that we couldn�t get weekend accommodations. We had a rough time at the freakish church we went to on our Houston 1998 vacation. Hurricane Gordon kept us in at Tampa 2000. This way, we go to our own church and don�t have to worry about unsound doctrine.

I need to �code� my old stories and put them on the internet again. If you know where my website is, it�s all still there, it is just that the version2.html page has been changed so there are no links anymore.

I�ll put one of my favorite old stories up right after this.