The Soapbox Archives:
I have to think about the demographics of the different hotels' clientele. The Westin's customers don't seem to have any issue with taking their smoking outside, if they smoke at all; I guess the Comfort Inn's customers want to be able to smoke in their rooms. The cheaper hotels don't seem to have a problem with the smoke getting into the wallpaper and rugs in the public areas as well as in the rooms, *and* in the adjacent non-smoking rooms. The Westin, on the other hand, is a really nice hotel and there is no hint of smoke in the air.
The thing to remember is to remember to request a non-smoking room on a non-smoking *floor*.
It's worth it to go out and get a good breakfast before hitting the road.
The worse of the bunch are the absentee landlords who have no vested interested in maintaining a property properly; they just want the rental income and aren't interested in investing to make the property nice. After all, if the property is well-maintained and looks nice, it'll be worth more and they'll have to pay more taxes on it.
Some landlords can afford to do the right thing but don't want to shell out the money that will cut into their rental income. There's a house around the corner from me whose backyard touches mine. They have all the runoff from their garage and the back half of the house go into their backyard. Since my property is lower than theirs, all their runoff goes into my yard.
One of the owners of that house seemed to try to improve the property a little; the guy pulled out all the weeds in the yard. However, since he didn't sift out all the dirt and remove the roots, all the weeds start growing back. What did he do? He'd didn't buy any weed killer products; he poured a mixture of salt and vinegar onto the big plants. The result? Because all the water from his yard seeps into mine, my plants are dying. What a cheap idiot. I'm already pissed that his rain runoff is going into my backyard; now he's killing my plants, healthy or otherwise.
Those of you who've taken Ancient History (or was it Bible Study?) might remember stories of invading armies punishing their defeated enemies by plowing their lands with salt so they couldn't grow any food. Sometimes I just hate stupid people.