$250 Fine for Smoking

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What? No High Efficiency Washer? Them's REAL fightin' words!!!

Just kidding of course. :-)

I'm not the laundry person in the family (vintage kitchen is much more my thing), so I am not the person to discuss their benefits versus disadvantages. The one thing I'll say is that I like how gentle our Frigidaire FL is on my collection of vintage Hawaiian shirts. My old machine (I don't remember for sure, but I think it was a Maytag) used to eat them for lunch. Those shirts are the one piece of laundry I don't let John touch, as he tends to get things "brutally clean". My white T-Shirts and socks have never been whiter, but they fall apart a lot quicker.

...and the woman who rents from us is an ironing fiend. I prefer to not have my jeans ironed, and it took forever to break her of that habbit, LOL.
 
Don't get me started on HOAs

Geez, and then I said this was my last contribution to this thread...but oh well, we can just say that it was my last statement on smoking bans.

HOAs have spread like wildfire. Me? Again, I think it is amazing how many people are so willing to sign away their rights to get into a new home, then they bitch and complain that they can't keep their garage door open.

In many areas, there is little or no housing available without "codes, covenants and restrictions" attached to the deed. To me, this is disgusting.

99% of the bad stuff is usually covered by city codes...building too close to your neighbors's property, temporary structures in the front yard, no trash piles in the backyard, etc. The city can fine the homeowner, haul away trash and bill the owner, etc, if they don't fix the problem. Alright by me.

Now, you may have an argument that controlling what colors you paint your house keeps your wacky neighbor from painting his house purple and driving down the value of your house when you sell it. I can see that point, but again, not at the loss of all your other rights.

When Kim and I were looking for a new house about 8 years ago (Thank God we stayed where we were and waited to buy the place we are in now) this is what we found throughout Southern California, some developments worse than others. When you read these, turn on your wayback machine and think of how things were in the 60s/70s:

* No basketball hoops mounted over the garage
* Garage doors cannot be open for more than 20 minutes, and cannot be open unattended at all
* Fine for trashcans left out overnight (guess you have to make special arrangements if your plane gets hung up on a day trip)
* All painting and improvements must be approved by the "association"
* No window coverings except "association approved" colors and styles
* No overnight parking in the street
* No overnight parking in your own driveway
* No RV or boat parking, even if you have a larger lot with plenty of room on the side of your house to pour a slab
* No swingsets
* No working on cars in your garage
* No workshop in your garage
* No storage in your garage
* "Overwatering" may be reported to the "Association"

Bear in mind, I am not talking about renting an apartment, I am talking about BUYING your OWN HOME.

I know people who have homes that must keep part of their land as "wilderness". That means, they are not allowed to cut down weeds (except up to 15 feet from their house) kill snakes on it, trap animals like gophers, or plant anything on it. They must also follow exacting standards on how many square feet of lawn they must maintain. If it is not up to maintenance standards, they are fined by the "association". And, believe it or not, if they wish to paint THEIR SIDE OF A COMMON FENCE between themselves and a neighbor, not only does the "association" have to approve the color, but so does all adjoining neighbors.

Ok, so, you have more and more of these neighborhoods popping up, and less traditional neighborhoods.

And you want to tell me about how we are not losing our rights? Personally, I don't care if the government is doing it, or a bunch of silly control-freak people working for an association. My original point stands. Keep giving up your rights, and one day, you will have to give up everything that is important to you--because surely it irritates some other fool.

Meanwhile, I live in an old fashioned neighborhood. There's a basketball hoop over the garage that was there when I bought the place. I have built a tasteful carport in the back, I am building my sons' spaceship, we have room to play, and my neighborhood is gorgeous--even with a disgusting basketball hoop or two and an occasional, heaven help us, workshop in a fellow's garage.
 
We live in a neighborhood like Kevin's: We have city zoning so that (thank God) we can't suddenly have a factory on the corner, or something like that. Otherwise, we can do pretty much what we want with our houses, and no one gets worked up. We have a nice mix of races, ages, incomes, and housing stock. Our neighborhood business district has a coffee shop, a Mexican grocery, a "regular" grocery, a library, a bar, a very good Fillipino restaurant, a very lame barbeque restaurant, and entirely too many gas stations, dental offices, tax accountants and hair salons (for some reason). We have the occasional petty crime (burglary, car prowling, etc) but overall it's a pretty nice, low-key place to live. Other than the street grid, it's an as unplanned a place as you can ever live.
 
Wow! I'm not sure what to comment on because this thread has gone in 100 different directions...

Better to keep quiet and be thought of as a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt...
 
Dan...

You just described my neighborhood. And you know what, it works.

My next door neighbor sweeps my driveway when he does his, and when I edge I will go ahead up the street and edge his too. When I put my stove out to the curb, sure enough the nice lady across the street wanted it and I rolled it over to her house where she is now getting it worked on. People generally don't park in front of other people's homes for extended periods of time because of common courtesy. Our street is interesting because my group of homes I would say are average (for here) priced and as you go up the street they are worth about $300K more...but there are guys there that have built big garages in the back to accomodate RVs, and every house is different, a different color, etc. Vive la difference, and I love it.

Funny how things generally work out when left to common sense and courtesy.
 
Goodness Gracious!

Whirlcool - Where WILL it end???? The only way to truly enjoy freedon is to buy on a plot with electric fencing round (saying that I suppose many a law suit would ensue as people throw themselves on the fence in an attempt to rob you blind!!!!!)
Tom - You are right about the powder against tabs argument. Even with 1 tab in a frontloader, there is a strong odor of perfume, not from the sortener but from the tab itself! I now live in a harder water area which I do think helps but my way of measuring rinsing ability is how soft my old towels feel after drying in the dryer. Lately better! (nothing worse than hard scratchy towels when drying of your "what-not's"!!!!

Here's to a more harmonious automatic washer,org..... Who needs politics anyways (ducks, runs and cancels subscrition to autowasher.org for fear of starting another riot!!!!)
 
Kelly! Those cakes....

look fabulous!!!! As a man NOT currently height to weight proportioned, i would love to say yes to a slice.... sadly, due to the distance, the frosting would go before it arrived!!!
 
Crash and Burn

At my very worst, I hope I don't even come close to some of the, er, shall we say, 'statements' made on this thread.
It is too late to bake a cake. I seldom give up on threads in our AW fora, but this one is way over the top.
I'm out of here.
 
"Do you REALLY compare a person walking down a street with a cigarette to someone taking a whiz?"

For a typical urban street, I think that it is a very good comparison. It is not just about the cigarette smoke, it is also about the cigarette butt litter.

I don't believe that banning smoking in bars that do not serve food (other than nuts and chips) is necessary. Totally banning smoking in any establishment that serves food is a Good Thing. I really like going to restaurants and being able to eat without having the smell of cigarette smoke permeating everything.

I went to a bar in MA (that prohibits smoking in bars) and it took getting used to being able to smell things in the bar other than cigarette smoke.

Banning smoking in places that serves food also bans smoking in many bars. Other than private clubs, in most states, "by the drink" liquor licenses require that food also be served (at least sandwiches); and in many cases, "bars" are actually restaurants that are licensed to serve liquor.
 
I did a fair amount of business travel in the '90's (3-4 times a year) and found on numerous occasions that the "non-smoking" rooms came with a horrible application of some kind of air freshener that was almost as bad as residual smoke. Quite often I would search the nooks and crannies of the room and find the offending little bottle of air deodorizer, and chuck it into the trash. I've also been known to find the air filter for the room air system and chuck that if it's clogged with dirt/dust.

I think sometimes hotels simply slapped a "no smoking" sign up on a previously smoked room, sprayed some air freshener around, and passed it off.

So an all-non-smoking hotel would help resolve that problem, but it probably doesn't guarantee that those pesky room deodorizers won't be over-used.
 
I'll have a piece of chocolate cake, please. It looks wonderful - we should have a "bake-in" sometime, Kelly - I know a couple of others would love to join in the fun!

Omaha just passed a smoking ban in establishments that serve food and after much controversial banter from both sides, two weeks after the ban went into effect, the banter is all but gone and everyone has adapted just fine. Most smokers are used to going outside by now anyway so there isn't much of a change to their routines. As far as being outside and enjoying a cigarette, I'm one of them and if you don't like it, buy a gas mask to protect you from the smoke, the black smoke spewing from the city bus passing by and the soccer mom who has drenched herself in perfume. There are lots of pollutants in the air we breathe - don't single out one as the root of all evil, that's just narrow minded and reactionary.
 
I was talking to a smoker friend last night who was very pro-smoking ban (much more so than I was). He said that they were considering amending the Washington ban so that if a bar or club has a patio (and most do these days) you can have a smoke out there. As it stands now, you can't smoke in any area that is under the supervision of an employee, which I think is dumb. I was all for the ban on indoor smoking, but I don't think street or patio smoking is bad.

The main reason I was against indoor smoking, btw, was the situations we would get into in the club that I worked at (the "leather" bar) People would regularly throw their cigs in the trash cans, and they would occassionaly catch fire. Since the clubs are not required to have sprinkler systems (but they will, starting in '08 or sometime around there) I was always afraid of what could happen - all it would take is for someone to scream "fire" and all hell would break loose.

That, and I was tired of getting accidentally burned by drunks with cigarettes, although that usually meant at least an extra five bucks in the tip jar ;-)
 
A rational, sensible position

"I was all for the ban on indoor smoking, but I don't think street or patio smoking is bad."

This is, at least, sensible and practical. Thank you.
 
I am so glad!!

As you may have seen from the other thread, I go to los of hotel rooms with my job as a pizza guy.I just hate it when people walk out of their room with a lit cig in their hand, it is so nasty!!Or they have it dangling out of their mouth.Then they blow the smoke in your face. So Gross.I hate smoking.I was at one point a smoker.The Marbro man and I broke up about twelve years ago, and me with a strong will did it with lots of big red, bottled water, and ditermination. I have not picked up one since. i am glad they have banned it. Smoke is always in the room, long after people leave. In my neighbor state to the North, Washington, it is statewide. You can't smoke with in 25 feet of the door of a public building. Put that in your pipe and smoke it , if you can!!!
 
Sometimes, I just HAVE to laugh!

It NEVER ceases to amaze me how people will get so ''up in arms'' about smoking because it's soooooooooo bad......but offer them a joint and see what happens! LOL!!! Mark
 
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