“How do you like your new place?”
That is the question most certainly.
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| Science Photo Library |
You had no idea that you should ask, “How do you like the
smoke?”
Joe lives across the grass courtyard with Sandra. Joe smokes.
Sandra does not. In all kinds of weather I see him outside in a patio chair in
his covered patio, cigarette between fingers.
The cover is provided by the deck of the unit above him where Charlotte and
Wes live. Charlotte smokes too –
outside her home on her deck. Beneath us to the right is a unit owned by Linda.
She is a smoker but she moved last week to be with her boyfriend. She is
renting her unit to her female friend Karen. She moved in over the weekend. Oh
did I tell you – she smokes too. I was reading outside just now when the plumes
of smoke began to waft my way – distracting. So here I am complaining. Not
finished yet.
We have lived here for two months and the unit beneath us
has been empty until three weeks ago when a nice lady and her teenage son purchased
and moved in. We were hoping she would not be a smoker. I shouldn’t by a Lotto
ticket any time soon. She smokes. But her son does not. And she smokes both
inside and outside her home.
So the answer to the first question is, “I like my new
place.” It has a deck both front and back. So far, if the smoke is rising on
one side, I can retreat to the other. I have a lot more to say about
second-hand smoke and community living and strata councils and what they can
and should do. But first I have to take some time out to call my real estate
agent to list this carriage home.
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