Butt Out
Wow - not too many posts here lately. Blame it on rat turmoil, I suppose. That's probably another story for another blog. But to business.
I was dropping visiting programmer Brandon off at his hotel room this evening, pulling into the driveway between a McDonald's and an Exxon station. I was in the middle of a sentence when I noticed something smoldering in the pine bark mulch on the median.
I probably startled Brandon (he's not used to me like you are) when I stopped in mid-sentence, pulled the Jeep over and jumped out with a half-full cup of Coke Zero in my hand. A cigarette butt had started a foot-wide circle of pine bark smoldering. In the middle, there were flames and it was giving off heat like a backyard grill.
I doused it with the drink and it hissed angrily. It was barely fazed, so I kicked some more mulch (aka "fuel") on top of the fire in an attempt to teach it who is boss. I mean, smother it. I stepped on the flames, stomping without mercy. Limited success there had me about to look into the back of the Jeep for more liquids when a fellow from the McDonald's showed up with two big cups of water.
"This happens all the time." he said. "Now that it's summer we'll be running out here with water every other day." Wonderful.
Smoking is a bad enough habit. Littering is a bad enough habit. But what a wonderful gestalt! Truly, a brushfire is more than the sum of its parts -- smoking and littering. And stupidity. And combustibles.
Good job, thoughtless smokers of the world.
I was dropping visiting programmer Brandon off at his hotel room this evening, pulling into the driveway between a McDonald's and an Exxon station. I was in the middle of a sentence when I noticed something smoldering in the pine bark mulch on the median.
I probably startled Brandon (he's not used to me like you are) when I stopped in mid-sentence, pulled the Jeep over and jumped out with a half-full cup of Coke Zero in my hand. A cigarette butt had started a foot-wide circle of pine bark smoldering. In the middle, there were flames and it was giving off heat like a backyard grill.
I doused it with the drink and it hissed angrily. It was barely fazed, so I kicked some more mulch (aka "fuel") on top of the fire in an attempt to teach it who is boss. I mean, smother it. I stepped on the flames, stomping without mercy. Limited success there had me about to look into the back of the Jeep for more liquids when a fellow from the McDonald's showed up with two big cups of water.
"This happens all the time." he said. "Now that it's summer we'll be running out here with water every other day." Wonderful.
Smoking is a bad enough habit. Littering is a bad enough habit. But what a wonderful gestalt! Truly, a brushfire is more than the sum of its parts -- smoking and littering. And stupidity. And combustibles.
Good job, thoughtless smokers of the world.
posted by Dr. Momentum at 7/18/2005 08:00:00 PM
4 Comments:
Worst of all, you wasted a Coke Zero.
Yeah, I was acutely aware of that at the time.
You won't be surprised to know that I had plenty more in the boot, but it was all warm.
I drank one anyhow.
And, not to stereotype, but the guy who chucked the cigarette out probably had an "I love my country" flag on his car. No one's allowed to mess with the U.S. That's OUR job.
Yeesh. Some people are freeking numb. Sorry you lost your drink but I'm glad you were there to deal with the issue.
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