As I was watering my front yard, a party of women who were, shall we say, old enough to know better and then some, approached and unlocked their car which was parked in front of our house. One of them stood in front of the tree smoking, then proceeded to carelessly dash out her cigarette without making sure all of the sparks were extinguished. I could see embers smoldering among the roots. I ran over to stomp them out.
So I curtly told them to be more careful. There was a lot of "Oh, that was my friend who did that." "What?" but not really an apology. As they drove away, one of them said, "Thank you for being ecologically conscious," and I replied, "Thank you for not burning down my home!"
Call me a curmudgeon, but a house caught on fire up the street from my childhood home when I was three or four and I've never forgotten it, not to mention all the warnings about fire danger at the moment. And it's bad enough making people smell your smoke when you're still enjoying your cigarette - the least you can do is make sure it's properly put out when you're done!
Did I really need to explain this to a woman old enough to be my mother?
