Don't smoke 'em if ya got 'em

So, yesterday was the Great American Smokeout. How many of you quit? For good? Hopefully for good? Just for the day? Skipped the afternoon smoke break?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Well, those of you who did -- and we'll just leave it positively eternally done -- congratulations! I know it ain't easy. But who said life would be easy? Yeah, right. Nobody. Well, I don't know, maybe some schmuck out there trying to sell something. Even your mom, as much as she loves you and wants to bring you comfort, won't BS you about that.

So the Smokeout came to mind as I loped through Hawthorne Center and came upon a half-full pack of smokes discarded in the grass. At first I thought maybe somebody ditched 'em for the Smokeout, rather than chain-smoke the rest of the pack in the minutes before midnight struck. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) My immense powers of deductive reasoning later told me that the sticks were too wet to have been that fresh. I know, Monk and the chaps from "Psych" got nothin' to worry about with me on the job.

In a strange confluence of events my run took me through the Walmart parking lot where I spotted an array of security cameras on a light pole. What's so strange about that, you ask? Well, in this age of a growing Big Brother, nothing. The strange confluence is more the connection I made between the cameras and the smokes/smokers. My first thought was how much potential there is for us to be spied on by somebody (cue Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me"). 

Later I free-associated the spy cams and the Smokeout with a couple of movies: first, "The Bourne Identity," then "Cat's Eye." The first is obvious. But remember the vignette in "Cat's Eye" based on the Stephen King short story "Quitters Inc." from "Night Shift." James Woods signs up with "Quitters Inc." to kick the habit. Their methods are guaranteed. They know when you've stolen even a puff, and you'll pay. Or your family will. Yeah, I think their methods would work.

Well, enough of spies and smokes (funny, the convicted spy gets his last cigarette just before the firing squad).

Today's Stats
Temp: 39 degrees F
Distance: 5.25 miles
Weekly Total: 11.9
Treasure: 1 lavender bandana/scarf; 1 pink scunci; 1 Grizzly tobacco can; 22 cans. (The bandana will come to some use, perhaps as a dust cloth. The scunci goes on the trade table. The damned tobacco can is like the cigarette boxes I pick up. There's just got to be a use for it, if I only I can discover it.)

iPod Playlist (shuffle)
I Forgot to Remember to Forget - John Prine & Mac Wiseman
Pursuance - John Coltrane
Splendid Isolation (cover) - Pet Yorn
I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You - Alan Parsons Project
Shoot to Thrill - AC/DC (Awesome song! Just makes you feel like a rockin' badass.)
Close to the Borderline - Billy Joel
Summertime - New Kids on the Block
Fran-Dance - Mile Davis (Live at Newpot)
Wine Snacks - Ryan Adams (studio chatter live in the XM Studio)
A Dios - Santana
I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
Time and Time Again - Counting Crows
Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of - U2
Veracruz - Santana
Floating Back (live) - The Call
The Crazy Cries of Love - Joni Mitchell