Smokers

Smokers just don't understand how their filthy habit affects non-smokers who are unfortunate enough to be nearby.  I was irritated all last summer by the stinky smell of second hand smoke drifting into my apartment from one of my neighbors smoking on his/her balcony but had kind of forgotten about it over the winter.  I leave windows and doors open for fresh air all winter but I guess my smoking neighbor doesn't venture out to their balcony during the winter months.

The few nice spring days we've had lured the offender back out to his/her balcony to smoke and now it's back to traveling into my apartment and my lungs.  Irritating as hell but there is nothing we non-smokers can do but choke and put up with it.

I remember feeling helpless like this when I had to endure my husband's smoking habit.  I also remember him telling me, on one of the few times he managed to quit smoking for a while, that the smell of second hand smoke sickened him.  He understood but, when he began smoking again, chose to ignore how his habit affected others.  Maybe smokers do know but, since they can't help themselves, can't make too much of an effort to worry about us non-smokers.