What You Folks Up North Do During The Winter To Smoke At Work?

[doglips]

Being from and livening in Florida, I imagine anyone north of the state line spends the winter livening in Igloos and using dog sleds to work.

So I've always wondered what you folks up north do during the winter to smoke at work?

It is a silly and simple ? Down here on a "freezing day its maybe 40F so you can tuff it out for 5min outside. But up north, 0F and snow I just can not imagine stepping outside for a smoke....do companies have inside smoking areas? What do you all do?

Thanks All.

[DarthVaper]

I have never worked anywhere with an indoor smoking area. "Smoking lounges" were pretty much outlawed in the early 90's. The best, and I mean the best, you can hope for as a smoker is some form of shelter, like you might see at a bus stop. Most of the places I worked when I smoked had nothing of the kind. You bundle up in your hat, coat, gloves, scarf and boots and headed outside to smoke. Snow, ice, wind, wind with ice and snow in it, you're at the mercy of the elements.

But you know, I'd get so tired of people asking "Where ya goin'?" every time they saw me all decked out in my outerwear, I'd often just sneak out without them.

You learn to smoke a cigarette very quickly. Like two drags and done.

[FloridaKracker]

Screw the cold I love Florida.

[bzeisman]

being from chicago, it aint cold till there's a foot of snow on the ground and snot freezes to your face. we just suck it up, smoke REALLY fast, and go back in

[Fenwick]

I am back in Florida now but I lived in NYC for 5 years and the winters are brutal compared to Centtral Florida. You cannot smoke ANYWHERE in Manhattan. Basically what everyone says is true, You put on your full gear and go outside real business like. I worked in at recording studios and some of them would have lounges you could smoke in.

The worst was at a bar. You had to suit up and go outside everytime you wanted to smoke.

[jmhester]

The company I work for is in Anchorage, AK. Luckily, I live in Tampa! But when I was up there on business, they had a smoking room that was across the street from the main building. It didn't seem to be heated, though. I can't imagine what that must be like in the winter in Alaska!

[TheSmokingMan]

I'm in Houston, tomorrow they are calling for a nice cool 92 degrees. I just spent a week in Missery (Missouri) I like to have froze to death, it got all the way down to 42 degrees the first night we were there. I took my heavy winter coat because the 55 degree days like to have killed me.

Any colder than that is just nuts. I don't understand why the north is not just a winter wasteland, I don't see how people function up there.

Edited October 14, 2009 by TheSmokingMan

[Huffy]

The company I work for is in Anchorage, AK. Luckily, I live in Tampa! But when I was up there on business, they had a smoking room that was across the street from the main building. It didn't seem to be heated, though. I can't imagine what that must be like in the winter in Alaska!

Well..... depends on where you live in Alaska. I live in Anchorage, and we only get below zero (F) for part of the winter. Last year it got kind of chilly and we hit -26 one day and it sort of stayed brisk for a bit. Generally, though, if you live in the southcentral part of the state (Anchorage and on down the Kenai Peninsula) it's not much colder than Minnesota or North Dakota, but we have shorter days. The sun comes up around 10:30 and sets again by 3:30 in late December.

In the interior of the state it routinely gets down around 40 to 50 below zero. I think the people in Fairbanks are crazy, but they do get the northern lights like mad so there's an upside.

There are a couple places here that provide heated smoking shelters outside their buildings for their employees, but most people just go outside and try to be quick about it. If it's warmer than about 15 degrees it's no big deal. Colder than that you don't really want to take your glove off, but the alternative is burning your glove!

I'll be happy not to have to hassle with that this winter, and when I'm out ice fishing it'll be nice to vape with my gloves on. Heck, just about anything I do this winter will be nicer, because I'm going to have so much better lung capacity. Can't wait to get out on my snowshoes or my cross country skis or out on the frozen lakes to skate around. Believe me, I lived in Florida and will always miss the warm winters and the fishing, but nothing compares to living here where there's so much incredible beauty and so much room to enjoy it in peace and quiet!

[Edit: By the way, The Smoking Man, when it hits 40 toward the end of the winter people are out with short sleeve shirts. If it was 55 every day of the year here I think most of us would think we died and went to San Diego. The general feeling here is that anything over 70 is unbearable. Not kidding about that.]

Edited October 17, 2009 by Huffy

[Gazoo]

[Edit: By the way, The Smoking Man, when it hits 40 toward the end of the winter people are out with short sleeve shirts. If it was 55 every day of the year here I think most of us would think we died and went to San Diego. The general feeling here is that anything over 70 is unbearable. Not kidding about that.]

Where I live in cali the avreage the temp range is 60-70 degrees and its within that range 300 days outta the year so anything over 75 and we all complain and anything under 50 we whine. btw we were also the first city to ban smoking in bars in the world lol

[elem187]

Screw the cold I love Florida.

:thumbsup:

F' anywhere there is snow. Kind of nice to have 3 months of winter and then bam back to warm weather.... although our winters are pretty mild, rarely getting below 40 .. and usually it only gets down to low 40s for 3 or 4 days and then back up 70 for another two weeks before another 40 degree cold front moves in for another 3 days of chilly weather.

[TheSmokingMan]

Well..... depends on where you live in Alaska. I live in Anchorage, and we only get below zero (F) for part of the winter. Last year it got kind of chilly and we hit -26 one day and it sort of stayed brisk for a bit. Generally, though, if you live in the southcentral part of the state (Anchorage and on down the Kenai Peninsula) it's not much colder than Minnesota or North Dakota, but we have shorter days. The sun comes up around 10:30 and sets again by 3:30 in late December.

26 degrees below zero? You call that "BRISK"? That's not brisk it's insane.

In the interior of the state it routinely gets down around 40 to 50 below zero.

Routinely! 40 to 50 below!

I used to be in the Maintenance Department of a hamburger patty manufacturer in Ft. Worth. We would Jet-Freeze patties with liquid Ammonia. Ammonia boils at 64 degrees below zero and we often would have to enter the freeze tunnels and un-jamb the conveyor belts. We wore a huge parka suit and used the buddy system, if we were incapacitated our buddy was watching from the door and he would shut off the tunnel and drag you out. The danger wasn't rotating blades or moving conveyors, the danger was the cold. Our storage freezers were warehouses 5 to 10 thousand square feet that were 5 degrees below and I couldn't work in them for longer than 10 or 15 minutes because I couldn't feel my hands while wearing multiple layers of gloves.

There are a couple places here that provide heated smoking shelters outside their buildings for their employees, but most people just go outside and try to be quick about it. If it's warmer than about 15 degrees it's no big deal. Colder than that you don't really want to take your glove off, but the alternative is burning your glove!

Ha! (insert hysterical laughter here), screw that! Not in my lifetime!

[Edit: By the way, The Smoking Man, when it hits 40 toward the end of the winter people are out with short sleeve shirts. If it was 55 every day of the year here I think most of us would think we died and went to San Diego. The general feeling here is that anything over 70 is unbearable. Not kidding about that.]

Well, I guess that there are "people of extremes" from one end of the thermometer to the other.

[Christopher]

Wow that only time I see a temperature gage read that cold is on my refrigerators LCD.

[Sinikal]

Lol in Michigan man it gets cold! Tons of snow, ice, and just plain uncomfortable. But yea i would have to get all bundled up and stand outside to smoke! Sometimes i could only go out for half at a time! Im glad i switched to e-cigs, now i can vape in the heat!

[plantlvr]

Have to agree about the beauty of Alaska. If i had to choose between Florida and Alaska, Alaska would win hands down! It's so clean and green and not that many people to truly be annoying. Florida is beautiful too but it's way too hot and muggy for me, plus there's too many peeps!

[Huffy]

One of the great things about switching to e-cigs is how quickly you get back a lot of your lung power. I went for a hike yesterday on a trail that's pretty much all uphill on the outbound leg and I was amazed how I didn't have to keep stopping to let my pulse get back to normal. That, plus how great everything smells out in the woods and on the tundra in the autumn, especially since my sense of smell is so much better now than just a couple weeks ago.

Perfect weather, too: it was about 40 degrees, so after the first quarter mile you could take off your fleece jacket and hike without sweating. Of course, I did stop to take in the view and enjoy a bit of vaping. Nice to know I couldn't accidentally set off a forest fire!

[keenan]

Well, Im finally rested up and back for about 20 minutes tonight, but Ill be here all day tomorrow. I grew up in Queens, NY. Lived there till I was 21. Back then, you could smoke ANYWHERE. (thats how old I am ). I used to work in a grocery store in Brooklyn, and I remember stocking the shelves with a cig in my mouth. When My first child was born, I smoked in the room where my wife was. When I joined the Navy, we could still smoke everywhere. I remember in boot camp, the first 3 weeks NO ONE could smoke. Then one day our Company Commander (the Navys equivalent to a drill sgt.) said "We're all gonna go and have 1 cigarette and 1 cigarette only. When we got outside, he pulled out a smoke and said "Heres the 1 cigarette", and he lit it and passed it around. SUCKED. I was the 53rd guy out of about 80, so I got nothin. About a week later we got regular smoke breaks twice a day. I remember a couple of times hearing " Smoke em if you got em, everyone else grab a broom". So I made sure I ALWAYS had cigs on me. When I got discharged, I was in Florida waiting to go home, met a girl, married her, and here I stayed on and off for 28 years. Through the years, as our rights were slowly taken away, I lived in New York and saw restriction after restriction take place. It was as if smokers had developed leprocy. As far as the cold goes, it never bothered me, I like it WAY better than the heat and humidity of Florida. I can find a way to get warm, but theres NO friggin way to get cool unless you stay inside in air conditioning. My wife and I have a deal, after I retire, its back to the North !

[TheSmokingMan]

One of the great things about switching to e-cigs is how quickly you get back a lot of your lung power. I went for a hike yesterday on a trail that's pretty much all uphill on the outbound leg and I was amazed how I didn't have to keep stopping to let my pulse get back to normal. That, plus how great everything smells out in the woods and on the tundra in the autumn, especially since my sense of smell is so much better now than just a couple weeks ago.

Perfect weather, too: it was about 40 degrees, so after the first quarter mile you could take off your fleece jacket and hike without sweating. Of course, I did stop to take in the view and enjoy a bit of vaping. Nice to know I couldn't accidentally set off a forest fire!

My wife and I were just talking about starting walking up the driveway and back after dinner every night. That's 1/2 a mile to the cattle guard and 1/2 a mile back to the house, goo thing it's paved.

As for getting you sense of smell back, I told her I could smell the carpet freshener before I come in the front door now, She was amazed. I used to keep 4 air fresheners in my truck, just so I could smell them. Now I have only one. I also told her tonight, that I can also smell other things that aren't so nice and that she is going to have to do something about that rogue kitten that showed up because it doesn't belong in the house! ...Busted!

[TheSmokingMan]

I've got to add something else about smoking at work. I don't care where I have worked in my career, doing maintenance in office buildings and a meat packing facility and working behind a computer in the office to having my own office. I smoked, period and not in the freaking cold either. Being an electrician I have always had keys to all of those locked doors that you find in office buildings and some of the maintenance hallways are certified labyrinths, real easy to get lost in. At the facility that made hamburger patties in Ft. Worth, I would go out in one of the warehouses, smoke in the maintenance shop or go to the attic (which was really another floor in the building in itself). Screw all of that bundling up in the winter and freezing you cajones off trying to smoke a cig. You wouldn't believe how nice a heater hydraulic lines make when they are in use.

[NeRo9k]

Ya, I was just had to man up and go outside. Now thanks to vaping, I don't have to anymore!!!

Edited October 20, 2009 by NeRo9k

[Fenwick]

Ex-pot smoker and guilty chain smoker here.........we need to be diplomats with vaping. Now that we can puff on serious personal vaporizorzers that look like they could complete n Apollo mission we have to ease the masses into exceptance. Vape responsibly

[Fenwick]

Looking at my previous post I can Tell I'm drunk. sorry about the grammer........but the spirit of what I am saying is true. By the way can somebody stop me from purchasing crap...fortunatley the Janty stick is back ordered.

[VegasVapor]

Looking at my previous post I can Tell I'm drunk. sorry about the grammer........but the spirit of what I am saying is true. By the way can somebody stop me from purchasing crap...fortunatley the Janty stick is back ordered.

You want to buy my Janty Stick? Oh wait...you said to STOP you from buying stuff. Just kidding, it's not for sale. lol sorry :P

[Fenwick]

I will totally buy your Jsnty Stick...wait talk to me in the morning when I have the discussion with my wife about how this vaping business wa supposed to be cheaper.

Seriously though...We need to be ambassadors. What we do now could define the next twenty years.............so drunk vape under the radar

[TheSmokingMan]

I will totally buy your Jsnty Stick...wait talk to me in the morning when I have the discussion with my wife about how this vaping business wa supposed to be cheaper.

Seriously though...We need to be ambassadors. What we do now could define the next twenty years.............so drunk vape under the radar

Holy mackeral, Fenwick is all over the place, someone cut his internet connection!

[Fenwick]

muhhaha!