This guy

About a year ago, the University of Florida and Shands became a non-smoking institution. I've watched several people try to quite smoking and I believe it when they say that it's one of the hardest addictions to break, still, as a lifetime non-smoker, I just can't help but be amazed by the lengths that my smoker coworkers will go to smoke a cigarette at work. 
Step one was to ignore it, a bold first move that I couldn't help but respect.  Banking on the fact that it's UF and instating a policy can be completely separate from enforcing said policy. As I said, a good play but not good enough, UF seems oddly if atypically committed to this non-smoking policy and security actually enforced it, thus kicking them out of their comfy, shady outdoor smokers lounges.
So amid much protestation, they began to congregate on the street corner outside the hospital.  Away from the buildings but with low brick walls to perch upon it was a logical choice, though the gaggle of health professionals enjoying their ciggies on the street corner may have been a little disconcerting to arriving patients.  At this turn they were thwarted again when it became known that the street corner counts as hospital property and again, they were shunted away by security.

Finally they proceeded to cross the street to stand on the opposite corners of the street, VA/government property where one apparently can smoke in peace.  This corner is unadorned and lacks even the most base comforts of benches and shade, a hurdle that has not discouraged them but seems to have sparked the flame of creativity. On any given day you can drive past to find several of them, perched on folding, portable stools with colorful umbrellas propped across their shoulders.  I admit, while I find the whole display a little bizarre, one cannot help but admire their tenacity in enjoying their morning/mid-morning/afternoon cigarette.

Then, there's This Guy:

February 27, 2012

That Guy, on the left was smoking his morning cigarette as I walked up  to the building yesterday and casually tossed the still lit butt into the be-dewed morning grass, stomped on it and then just walked away.  Just walked away.  It took all my self restraint not to shout out a "hey you" and proceed to hold forth on why he's completely free to destroy his own health and his own world with bad habits but to leave the rest of us with the residual trash?  That's fucked up my friend.  Just. Plain. Wrong.

But I didn't.  It was 730 am and I couldn't guarantee that a coherent tongue lashing would have ensued.  More likely it would have been one, loud and lunatic "whargaaarrrble!"  And so I choose to immortalize him here on my little corner of the inter-web as a littering, smoker with no creativity!