Persecuted in San Jose

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

New Cigars




PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.

iajaffe

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 10, 2010
176
47
So my wife and I live in San Jose. Their are 4 apartment communities abutted up next to each other. One of them has a few benches. I met a cigar smoker there who measured out 30 feet from the nearest building and he smokes there regularly. So my wife and I have been going down there and smoking; me a pipe and her a Nat Sherman. Then the fun began. Warmer weather, people opening windows and closing their small, shriveled, anti-smoking Nazi hearts.
We have had people from the nearest complex sneak pictures of us and send them to their management. The management sends the pictures to our property and tells us not to smoke on their property. Fair 'nough. I take our folding chairs out and moved 3 feet from our previous location in to the parking lot of a private office building. Are you happy now?
Cold, dead hands people. That's when I'll stop. Now you just pissed me off. Now I am going to circle your property in a cloud of smoke. Now I want to buy a billow and fire up a whole tin of 1792.
Keep smoking, people.

 

jacks6

Lifer
May 9, 2016
1,005
3
I love your approach. If they don't like the smoke they can shut their damn windows. Nosy people.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
iajaffe, higher density living, which is becoming more popular as people move back to central cities, is a set-up for smoking conflicts. It sounds like you found a reasonable accommodation with your bench, but then the crowd moved in. It may take some work to reach an understanding, and you may have to formalize it in writing with the landlord or owners association so you don't have to re-negotiate every time a tenant or owner moves in or out. Whew. It's hard.
Retirement communities and assisted living will be a big contest with the boomers aging. In medical situations where oxygen is used, obviously smoking is not possible. Simple fire safety. But outdoor situations in proximity to the facilities are also difficult because with some residents this requires staff time to accompany the residents. For people whose pleasures are few and limited, it is yet another sacrifice to not have this. I tried to help a friend in such a situation. I supplied him with pipes, a cob and a briar, and tobacco. I think I may have been replacing items that had been removed by staff or family; he wasn't aware. I guess he was supposed to make pot holders instead. It's a problem of freedom and requires work. Other than the pipe shop, I can't think of many places where I can sit down and smoke a pipe. If you go for isolation, then in some cases you are taken as a forest fire hazard, and so on. I guess if you lunt (walk with your pipe) you are moving, so less of an issue. Compared to people who go 20 mph above the speed limit through residential areas where there are walkers, children, pets, and wildlife, smoking seems a remote complaint, but not so.

 

iajaffe

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 10, 2010
176
47
I agree. I miss living in a house. Controlling my own space. For now I will continue to push whatever boundary they set in front of me...blowing smoke across the line when ever possible.

 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,603
14,669
@iajaffe: The situation you describe is a perfect example of "social norms" that have become complete insanity, but no one recognizes it as such because it's now the social norm. The only reason those people are overreacting in such an absurd way is because they have been brainwashed to do so.
Good luck dealing with the lunacy that surrounds you.
Get a diesel truck and let it idle for several hours.
Great point. But it won't bother them a bit, because they have not been conditioned for that to bother them...they'll just breathe it in like it's pure oxygen.

 

mayfair70

Lifer
Sep 14, 2015
1,968
2
If you like chicken, buy a little smoker. Some people call it Port O Pit around here. Then you can smoke your pipe AND chicken all day if you want. Barbecue is low and slow, so you could do beef brisket or anything else as well. They'll be BEGGING you to smoke after that.
"Oh what smells so good in there!!"

 

bonehed

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 27, 2014
636
0
I think people should be able to open their windows and have unpolluted, by anything, air to breathe. Doesn't seem like too much to ask to me...

 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,603
14,669
I think people should be able to open their windows and have unpolluted, by anything, air to breathe. Doesn't seem like too much to ask to me...
There must be a reasonable distinction between "pollution" and simply smelling something. Smelling tobacco smoke from 30 feet away that is coming from outdoors is not pollution. People are having a programmed reaction to simply smelling it that is absurd. These same people are ingesting all kinds of toxic substances every day both intentionally and unintentionally without even thinking about it because they have not been told to by "authorities". But simply smell a little tobacco on the wind and they're sure they're going to drop dead any second.

 

iamn8

Lifer
Sep 8, 2014
4,248
14
Moody, AL
Previous to my current home, I lived in a downtown loft. By the end of my time there, I'd basically made my loft air tight after many complaints. It was a part of why I sold it and bought a house. People these days feel they have the right to never have anything bother them. They do not.

 

briarcudgel

Starting to Get Obsessed
May 6, 2016
108
108
Well, the fun police are going to try to limit anything that allows us to enjoy, but that someone has an issue with. Shut the window and turn on the a/c if it's that bad. Living in close proximity to other people's cooking, cars, roads and such will inundate you with all kinds of smells. First it was no smoking in restaurants and businesses, then you couldn't smoke near a building, then not on the street at all. Next, it will be the smoke sniffing dog that shows up at your door with a fun police officer in tow ready to write you a citation. There are areas where your lawn mower has to be under a certain decibel level at a certain number of feet from your property. And, you could only mow at certain times. And this was in a suburban private home community. Where and when does it stop? The fact that I live infringes on somebody, I'm sure. They just haven't regulated my existence, yet.

 

mayfair70

Lifer
Sep 14, 2015
1,968
2
I think people should be able to open their windows and have unpolluted, by anything, air to breathe. Doesn't seem like too much to ask to me...
I think this is a fair and equitable viewpoint. It is also rational and big picture type thinking. Way better than my idea. I'm glad someone is minding the sanity store. Thanks bonehed. :wink:

 

daveinlax

Charter Member
May 5, 2009
1,989
2,651
WISCONSIN
You signed a lease so you should know or can read up on what the smoking policy is. I pretty much expect no smoking on any private property these days. 8O

 

jackswilling

Lifer
Feb 15, 2015
1,777
24
California could be the best place in the United States, by a wide margin. It is one of the worst, if not the worst places to live. California blows so freaking hard with the nanny liberals up your wazoo about everything. Thank God I was able to move out of California last year. What is worse than the smoking NAZIs, is how much you get to pay for that apartment in San Jose.

 

deathmetal

Lifer
Jul 21, 2015
7,714
32
Accommodate smokers -- give them a place to smoke -- and these problems go away.
Our society is manipulative, intrusive and downright ridiculous on this and every other issue.
The only solution, really, is a boot party in DC that ends with the city in ashes.

 

indianafrank

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 15, 2014
950
5
Unfortunately this kind of absurdity is happening more and more.
A while back I posted that I was told my pipe smoking was bothering a woman sitting in the car next to me. I was parked in a public park. Her car was about 10 feet from mine.
Two weeks ago I was walking down a canal path in the country. I was smoking one of my mm's. The nearest town was about 5 miles away. Two women walking toward me told me I could not smoke on the trail. There was a sign that read. "No Smoking. This Is An Environmentally Controlled Habitat."
I said. "Yes I know. Have me arrested."
You see. At this time of my life, I no longer give a shit!

 

jefff

Lifer
May 28, 2015
1,915
6
Chicago
I live in a condo in the Printers Row district of Chicago. I have loved here for 3 years. I smoke a pipe both inside and on my balcony and I have never heard a word of complaint.

 

deathmetal

Lifer
Jul 21, 2015
7,714
32
People are looking for an excuse to tell you what to do, because it makes them feel powerful. The correct response is "you're talking nonsense, go back to whatever inconsequential role you serve." These people are passive-aggressive bullies and nothing else.

 

lochinvar

Lifer
Oct 22, 2013
1,687
1,632
The last time I had this happen to me, it was in my lovely dormitory days of college. It was yelled out a window "Christians don't smoke" (I went to a Baptist college...in fact i think the guy is now a minister). I suggested his mother might have had loose morals and his father was the whole trailer park and invited him down to discuss it. The guy walked out telling me how he was going to "f my monkey ass up" until I stood up, at which point he walked back inside.
Today I would probably be arrested for disturbing a snowflake's tranquility. The longer I live, the less I like people in close proximity.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.