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.

[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.

[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.

[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]

it lurks under my "recs" tag, if that's something that might stick with you >>; but I agree bookmarking is helpful!

[kaberett]

Yeah, that I can live with ;)

The time TOG seriously exposed me to smoke (he was smoking in the house when I got in), it hurt to breathe for a week. Like, not just "greater sensitivity to any other allergen and more coughing fits", it hurt to breathe. I don't expect better from him at this point in terms of the amount of incidental harm he'll do me; I just really wish I could. He's working on it, but... ugh. Ugh. (And obviously it's complicated because it is his house and he should be able to do the things in his own home, and on the other hand he perfectly well can - it's just that if he does he needs to tell me not to visit, and if it screws up dates with him I'll be upset; if it screws up dates with TOL I'll be upset and pissed.)

[alexseanchai]

Oy. All the sympathies.

[cosmolinguist]

I used to walk past an antenatal unit to get to work, and there were not just regularly people smoking next to the no-smoking signs, but regularly pregnant young women smoking, often with a child in a pram just in front of them, next to the no-smoking signs. It boggles the mind.

[relationship processing that mostly involves me being pissy; TOL, you might wanna skip]

[kaberett]

(I mean, the other reason I'm pissy about it is that it feels like having multiple times stated an intention to quit on the grounds that that would probably be better for everyone and in particular means that he can never do that to me again, it kind of feels like he's instead trying to work out exactly how much he can get away with without me calling him on it fucking me up. It really, really feels like boundary-pushing. And that's massively unfair - he is actually just doing fairly typical autie fail-at-theory-of-mind and not thinking through steps to the future, but this is exactly why he keeps saying he'll quit. My place in the order of things, etc etc etc...)

[quirkytizzy]

Smokers really ought to be more considerate. I get mightily pissed off when people get pissed off at me just for smoking AT ALL, but for the most part, people who get mad at smokers do so because someone is being an asshole towards them.

And there are some friends with whom I always make alternate transportation plans with, or never request they visit me in MY home, because I smoke in my car and house. There is no reason to inflict that on them.

And TOG, hopefully he can work on that better, since accessibility for you is a sincere concern and simply meeting somewhere else isn't as easy as "you can just crash on my couch tonight."

[piiiiiiiiiissy]

[kaberett]

Or indeed as easy as "we were planning to actually share a bed IN THE ROOM YOU HAVE BEEN SMOKING IN". >:[

[umadoshi]

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

[wordweaverlynn]

Oh, I sympathize so damn hard.

[sylvaine]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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*

[pretty_panther]

It is bad enough when it is patients and visitors but so often you see STAFF smoking and it makes me SO MAD.

[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

[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.

[calissa]

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