Gas & Cigarettes

The price of gasoline is depressing. I was going over my budget last night and the price I paid to fill my tank, $75.49, caught my eye. When I bought the vehicle, it cost me in the early 30's to fill it. It's more than doubled since 2002! How is that possible? Why? What can we do about it? *Syn stomping feet here* I WANT TO KNOW! *tantrum over*

If you want to know what gas prices are in any given area, check out fueleconomy.gov.

I thought of something this morning...do smokers complain about the cost of gas? I mean, if you smoke one pack a day, isn't that equivalent to a gallon of gasoline or thereabouts (possibly more than a gallon of gas)? Gas is a necessary evil for work, grocery shopping, doctor's appointments unless you are within walking distance or have bus service (we don't). Smoking isn't. Seems to me it'd be better to quit the ciggies and spend that money on that evil gas.

Addiction though right? I'd have to equate it to my addiction to chocolate and Pepsi but not quite (in terms of need, not price). I don't have a pack of day of either of those and a 2 liter of Pepsi is $0.99 (I refuse to buy it otherwise because I'm stubborn like that) and chocolate bar even less. I can get by for several days before I'm climbing the wall for a piece of chocolate or glass of Pepsi and neither of those will likely give me lung or throat cancer. Pepsi might rot my gut. Who knows. Bad comparison.

My husband smoked for 16 years (before I'd met him). He decided one day he was going to quit. He quit. Just like that. His willpower is phenomenal. I'm glad because I fell for him hard the first moment I met him and if he'd stank everytime he spoke to me or kissed me, I'm not sure I'd have married him, especially with my asthma. It would've been a health hazard to marry my man, lol.

It's not like I've never tried smoking. I did for awhile. A very, very long time ago. It wasn't something I wanted an addiction to, left a nasty taste in my mouth (cigarette burps are really gross) and I stopped.

I am one of those individuals who support the no smoking in public ban, as unpopular as that may be with some. I don't think anybody else has the right to inflict damaging chemicals into somebody else's breathing space in public. My asthmatic lungs can't take it. I don't think anybody should have the "right" to smoke in public and possibly kill me because of it. I don't even have to be right there when they're puffing away...just walking through an area where somebody has been smoking is enough to give me an asthma attack. The front door where I used to work was horrible. All the smokers would congregate there and if I walked through it, even when nobody was there anymore, the smell was still there and got me wheezing (I guess from the butts or something in the tray...maybe the smell infused itself into the brick...who knows).

One of my coworkers lost her voice box to throat cancer. She was a heavy smoker. Do you think it stopped her from smoking after that? I wouldn't have brought her up if she had quit. She didn't. Sad really.