The Facts of Life: Part 1

I was out for a run yesterday, jogging down Parrish -- the one road in the city that has more than a mile of sidewalk. As I trucked along, enjoying a slightly warmer day and a bit of sunshine, I was pleasantly surprised to see some remnants of snow (albeit slightly discolored) along the sidewalk. This thought was almost immediately replaced by, “wait a minute, we didn’t get any snow,” at which point I realized I was looking at a stretch of piled cigarette remains. As I was contemplating this filth, low and behold a truck pulls up beside me and proceeds to flip a cigarette butt out the window, flying directly in front of Wyatt’s stroller. Lucky for him, we had the vinyl weather shield on and I don’t run very fast, or else he would have had to deflect the burning stub with his own chubby little hands. Does this happen anywhere else?

I feel as if I’m suffocating in second hand smoke all the time and up to my neck in the dirty butts of Owensboro. The depressing fact of the matter: Kentucky has the highest percentage of cigarette smokers in the nation. Perhaps I am.

~Anna