EVERY DAY IS BEING PISSY ABOUT ACCESS DAY :D

[kaberett]

I have been out of the house barely an hour. In that time:

1. I have been reminded that the type of bus that serves the route I generally use to get into work is REALLY badly set up in terms of wheelchair access - if there are people in the seats opposite the wheelchair bay, the only way to get in (and I have a light, readily manoueverable chair!) is to reverse extremely cautiously round the awkward grab rail while they tuck their feet right in.
   
   
2. Fucking smokers at the top of the ramp that is my one sensible entrance into my building by the fucking doors with the fucking no smoking sign in addition to the fact that it's simply fucking outright illegal to smoke there. Normally I cope better; as it is I've already had one exposure this week (That One Gent seriously needs to either do the thing he keeps saying he will and quit OR at minimum sodding tell me if he has smoked in the 24 hours prior to seeing me so I don't have to find out by developing uncontrollable coughing fits + sensitisation lasting days) and as such I was kind of rude, to the tune of "I have a significant cigarette smoke allergy and this is my one sensible route into the building; it would be great if you would comply with the law and not smoke near doors." ("Sorry," he said, "but there's all these schoolchildren," gesturing to the side of the steps where people usually congregate to smoke illegally. "AND AN ENTIRE REST OF THE ROAD," I said, with sweeping gesture behind me.)
   
   
3. The fucking lift into my fucking building is fucking broken afuckinggain and nobody bothered to fucking e-mail me about it. I would care less apart from the fact that my alternate route involves retracing steps past at least one awkward sodding door, followed by a bunch of doors that you have to PULL UPHILL to open having RELEASED THE CATCH WITH YOUR CARD.
   
   
4. AND. THE SMOKERS ON THE FRONT STEPS AT THE FRONT OF MY ACTUAL BUILDING. THE ENTRANCE I CAN'T USE, BECAUSE STEPS. WERE BEING SO UNUTTERABLY VILE THAT THE CENTRAL STAIRWELL ON THE SECOND FLOOR IS NOT CURRENTLY SAFE FOR ME TO USE, DESPITE BEING THE ONLY ROUTE BY WHICH I CAN ACCESS MY WORKSPACE.

In conclusion: set everything on fire, ESPECIALLY SMOKERS. Yes, it will lead to a brief increase in the problem, but it will also be a temporary increase. When I rule the world, the penalty for smoking in public space will in fact be instant immolation. </astonishingly grouchy>

Comments

[kaberett]

Also, for serious, if you are feeling like saying "NOT ALL SMOKERS", please just go away and read that one post about speaking in generalities because explicitly acknowledging that people we care about who are members of the class in question routinely hurt us is hard and it's vastly emotionally easier to pretend, for a moment, that it's possible to gloss over that fact.

[cosmolinguist]

(Omg, thank you for the link; I really needed that the other day and could not remember enough about it to find it, and lost hope of ever seeing it again.)

And sympathy/rage re the inaccessibility you have to live with.

[quirkytizzy]

Is saying "I'm a smoker and also hate it when assholes don't use designated smoking areas" okay? Cuz that's how I feel. One of my classmates asked me to change seats in class because she's trying to quit smoking and I, of course, come in after every break smelling of smoke, so I changed seats.

I don't get why more smokers can't be considerate, because if they aren't following the rules, it really DOES hurt some people.

[joshuaorrizonte]

Goddamn smokers. What the fuck is it about cigarette smoking that makes the smokers think that their bad habit trumps the health and safety of everyone who cannot tolerate the byproduct of their bad habit?

That's one thing I do not miss about my former workplace. The smokers. In the doorway. The smokers in the doorway who smoked in the doorway despite a no smoking sign, and then despite the no smoking sign including "chapter and verse" of the state law that said that, no really, no smoking in that spot.

And then who, rather than taking a hint and smoking away from the door when the ashtrays were moved out to the legal distance from the door, moved the fucking thing back. That was kind of hilarious in a bitter "oh my fucking god you dicks" way.

I'm sorry. I hope your day improves.

[rmc28]

The smokers smoking outside the outpatients entrance to the hospital, which I had to enter while pregnant and with a young child in tow.

RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE SHOULDER-HIGH SIGN SAYING NO SMOKING. FFS.

The designated smoking place in this workplace is the other side of the carpark. That is JUST ABOUT far enough away.

[kaberett]

I have sent an e-mail to both the head of the Disability Advisory Service and my building manager, to the tune of "so you may or may not remember that I inquired as to the feasibility of reminding people about legal requirements regarding smoking near building entrances with respect to its impact on accessibility BACK IN MARCH, any updates on that". WE WILL SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

But yeah, other than that the day did get better :-)

[alexseanchai]

Oy. All the sympathies.

[kaberett]

thx xx

[umadoshi]

Any one of those things is painfully aggravating. Taken all together...? GAH. *sympathies*

[kaberett]

Ye-aaaah. On the plus side, my day did actually improve from there :-)

[wordweaverlynn]

Oh, I sympathize so damn hard.

[kaberett]

yeeeeeeeep. I am sorry is problems for you also.

[sylvaine]

SMOKERS. *shakes fist* & hugs and sympathies for all the rest of it. <3

[kaberett]

Thank you <3

[naath]

Smokers nearly set our building on fire yesterday (by putting *still lit* cigs in the cig bin and not putting them out first). Hahaha NOT. The fire-alarm procedure here is really really stressful for a lot of people; a lot of people are VERY ANGRY.

[kaberett]

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.

Normally the thing I hate most about putting still lit cigarettes into the cig bin is that it ignites the rest of the fuckers in such a way that it's really hard to readily put it out SO THE FUCKING THING SITS THERE RELEASING TOXINS INDEFINITELY. I... am impressed and concerned that that was a thing.

[hilarita]

I just want to give e-cigs to all the smokers, because smoke is fucking grim.

I'll be over here, melting in the heat.

[kaberett]

On days like today I mostly just want to force them all to quit cold turkey and serve them fucking well right. (~some of my favourite partners are smokers~)

[silveradept]

Orbital ray immolation sounds like a proper solution to these issues. Or, perhaps, for those who really aggravate by doing it too close or in places they shouldn't get extra fun with the orbital ray.

[kaberett]

Suggestion below: I propose a Cryoray from space which freezes all the smokers, so we won't have to deal with their ashy remains.

To which I say: YES GOOD. YOU WILL NOT BE THE FIRST AGAINST THE WALL WHEN THE REVOLUTION COMES, ETC.

[raze]

Oof, I'm sorry you had to go through that. I wish more people would consider the fact that their actions impact other people very directly. I really try not to judge smokers but fuck, they make it a little too easy to sometimes. I have so many friends with serious respiratory ailments who can have their whole day and then some utterly ruined just because someone feels the need to puff in public.

[kaberett]

Ye-ah. For quite a while phone calls with TOG as I was on my way home from work would involve a ritual muttered fucking smokers as I exited the building; I used to apologise and indicate that of course I wasn't including him because he was polite about this stuff.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA

[jesse_the_k]

Ugh ugh ugh.

Unfortunately I can empathize with wheelchair transport, and the doors, and the FUCKING SMOKERS !!!

But I must say:

Your snappy answers on #2 are top-notch!

It enlightening that someone else has the "sensitization" effect after smoke exposure. It's not just me.

Finally, I propose a Cryoray from space which freezes all the smokers, so we won't have to deal with their ashy remains.

[kaberett]

CRYORAY: YES, EXCELLENT SUGGESTION. YOU MAY BE MY GRAND VIZIER.

[why do I not have any icons of pointy hats]

[o well soon I will have icons of grumpy hedgehog]

ETA also, re sensitisation? Super super not just you; there's at least two other folk in comments at time of writing going "... wait it's not just me?!?!?!" Because, like, heaven forfend that we make smokers feel like social pariahs by ostracising them when we talk about the ways their antisocial behaviour FUCKS US OVER.

[untonuggan]

*is reminded of the time when there were no beds at any of the decent psych units and so I was sent against my wishes to the horrible-remniscent-of-One-Flew-Over-the-Cuckoo's-Nest only psych hospital that has a Smoking Room in the common area on every floor, I kid you not -- the walls of that thing are yellow; theoretically it has a door to keep the smoke in but every time someone goes in or out *often in fact* a whole cloud of smoke goes into the place where, I dunno, you might want to get better? and I swear that place is so terrible the only reason it's open is because it's the only hospital in the region that doesn't just slap a nicotine patch on people*

I feel your rage, and I offer solidarity *fist-bumps*

[kaberett]

THE BEST OF FUN AND GAAAAAAAAAAAMES :D

right back atcha <3

[pretty_panther]

I'm really hoping that one day I will conquer my anxiety enough to call the cops on people like that all the damn time. The police will hate me. I don't care. I am at the hospital all the time and was said above you get so many people standing outside the doors smoking. I mean hello HOSPITAL o.O

[kaberett]

haaaaaaaaaa. I am starting out trying to get the Disability Advisory Service and the building manager between them to send pissy reminder e-mails about how this shit is illegal and maybe get security to actually move people away from building entrances in compliance with the law because this is genuinely 100% a serious accessibility concern, but... yeah, that is a thing I legitimately might contemplate doing if I get pissed enough.

(I am immensely frustrated that it took a morning going that badly, and being this generally stressed, before I even felt able to go "you realise what you are doing is completely unacceptable and actually harmful, right?")

[birke]

Good on you for sticking to your guns re: smoking near entrances. "AND AN ENTIRE REST OF THE ROAD," indeed.

At my college, some of the smokers had this idea that The Man was responsible for rules (because the rest of us like lung disease and building fires, obvs) and insisted on smoking indoors anyway. Others thought themselves considerate, but still clustered near the door to the library because it was covered from the rain.

One of my dormmates literally passed out in response to cigarette smoke. She warned us that that would happen and it did. Everyone was more careful after that.

[kaberett]

To be fair, dude #2 started gesturing uneasily and going "um" re rest of road while dude #1 was going "BUT THIS WAS THE ONLY PLACE!!!" so ~lol~ ~victory achieved~.

Except of course I have known plenty of people who'd tell me it was awful and confrontational and damaging to the cause for me to have said the thing. But, you know what, fuck off, I can't breathe and there's already polite signs and I first e-mailed the Disabilities lot and my building manager about this three months ago and they have done nothing.

[calissa]

For you. I saw this a couple of weeks back and thought of you. Hope it brightens your day a little.

[kaberett]

<3

[liv]

This is a little bit of a revelation to me because I've spent the last 30-ish years just assuming that sometimes getting sensitized and having to spend a few days of painful breathing is basically inevitable. I have asthma, so this happens. It never occurred to me that I could justifiably get angry with people who inflict this pain on me by smoking in places where smoking is not allowed.

[kaberett]

I have an... extremely short fuse on the topic. Not least because every exposure that gets me this badly reduces my tolerance in future :-/

ETA but even then, it takes me being alarmingly stressed/miserable about the world to actually have the gumption to call people on this shit as opposed to just stewing silently and ranting to friends removed from the situation, which makes me very sad. On the plus side, I was smiley-if-slightly-ferocious wheelchair user, so hopefully shamed the fuck out of those guys to the extent that (1) they'll be too embarrassed to do it again in future and (2) they'll infect other people with the embarrassment. (And, of course, I just spent a week being ~utterly spoiled~[1] at a conference where the doors to the building all had signs saying "PLEASE SMOKE ON THE BLOCK CORNERS, THE DRAFT DRAWS SMOKE INTO THE LOBBY" and... people DID THE THING. But then OSBridge was just all-round brilliant.)

[1] dripping sarcasm

[redbird]

*shakes a fist supportively in the direction of the smokers and all the people who can't be bothered to get wheelchair access right*

[kaberett]

thank you <333

bus on the way home was one of the competent ones at least!

[damerell]

Fire extinguisher?

[kaberett]

Unfortunately my motor control is not sufficiently reliably good enough BUT THE IDEA HAS MERIT. I suspect that what I actually need is MINIONS to parade before me with fire extinguishers...