Maybe you should stop.
Posted: December 6, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: rascal, rascal power chair, smoking 7 Comments
Mrs. Omawarisan
Saturday morning, my son’s marching band performed in a nearby Christmas parade. Mrs. O, a few other parents and I walked with the band to take care of any needs that might arise along the route that connects two small towns. Broken drumsticks, illnesses, shoes that come untied, Santa hats that fell off, we were there to fix what was wrong and keep the band moving.
Moving down the street with a parade gives you a chance to see a pretty good cross-section of the population. It is really interesting to watch people in the crowd as you go by them. Today, I am writing about one person I saw in the crowd.
Ride to the drug store, buy some gum.
I spotted a woman on one of those electric scooters. She was sitting at the curb, with an oxygen tank leading to a tube in her nose. She was smoking.
I know smoking is an addiction and that addiction is powerful. I have friends I love who smoke and wish they could stop. I wish for them.
Still, isn’t the fact that your lungs are so bad you must have oxygen shot up your nose enough to cause one to realize it is time for some introspection and change? Maybe the combination of having oxygen shot up your nose and being immobilized on a Rascal power chair? Maybe not.
Perhaps the fuel, ignition source and oxygen equation we all learned in second grade science would be an attention getter. It was for me.
Lady, please, if you are still going to smoke until you explode in flames, could you consider not doing it along parade routes? Self immolation just kills the whole holiday vibe.
Blurt 
Wow. I get the addiction, but it’s almost suicidal to smoke on oxygen. And then endanger others?
She needs an intervention.
Didn’t look like her daughter was going to help in the intervention. She didn’t have an oxygen tank, but I can see one in her future.
In my county you get 3 or 4 people per year blowing themselves by smoking around their oxygen tanks, which, ironically they needed because of the smoking.
I was in the grocery story the other day and two mobility devices caused a major traffic jam in front of checkout. “Looks like we’ve got a fender bender in front of the Altoids. We recommend you detour eastbound to lane 4 and merge with foot traffic by the Pepsi refrigerator.”
Sad, sad, sad.
See, that whole blowing themselves up thing was worrisome to me. I question, as a parent and a chaperone, whether my best move was to scream for the band director to make the kids march really fast for a block, throw water on ol’ smokey to put her out before detonation, or what I actually did, silently pray for today not to be the time and out my fingers in my ears as I went by?
I thought that it was a strict rule that you couldn’t mix oxygen tanks and sparks (cigarettes). I get the addiction part–my brother was a smoker and continued to smoke while sick with cancer. I believe his feeling was that it was too late to help and it was one of his last “pleasures.”
That stuns me to see, but doesn’t surprise. The people who market that stuff have to have their own personal circle of hell.
Well, it’s a rule as far as the laws of physics are concerned.
Ohhh, the smoking thing gets me so bad. It is an insane addiction (I am married to a smoker who cannot seem to stop, although he has quit several times over the years), one that would be far easier to recover from if our lovely federal government was concerned more with the welfare of its citizens than the money they make from keeping cigarettes legal.
OK, getting off my soapbox now …
No, no, bring the soapbox! I’m so happy we’re finally catching on to the non smoking thing here in NC. After the first of the year, no more in bars and restaurants! Self immolation at a parade is still legal.
That could have been tragic on so many levels.
I know…pieces of Rascal everywhere.
At least she likes parades.
True. Shes not got many parades left though.