Life Can Be Scary

I think about those scared straight programs, and some of the education programs that teach kids what their lungs look like when they smoke. What they really need to do with young kids is to make them clean a house that has had 50+ years of smoking in it. The yellow brown gak rolling off the walls as you try to wash off the sticky goo of smoke debris makes me gag and wretch.
Today, I was cleaning the lamp globes from the MIL house and the sickening brown ooze came off with muscle, toxic cleanser, and a wire brush. Kiddies, just imagine your lungs and the snot in your sinuses oozing brown sludge into your stomach and intestines. No wonder she died of colon cancer and he of lung disease.
The living room has a lovely Tiffany lamp over the dining room. It was so brown that I was not aware it had any value at all. When I started to clean it, the brown glass turned white. It has a most beautiful design and artwork. It weighs a ton, too. This is a real Tiffany and you would never have known due to the years of crud and goo.
Every window was coated, every wall, every fixture, every inch of the house needed to be cleaned with heavy duty chemicals.
Children, if you smoke, you will die an awful death in a depressing and filthy environment. No one will want to be with you in the haze. And the family that has to clean up your mess will resent you.
There! the rant is starting to let some of the trauma out. Even though I have worked and cleaned and hired help, I can't get the stench and gag me memory out of my head.
Next Rant- dog piss in the house. Different mother, but distressing nonetheless.