Mira. I was suspicious about the old van cruising through the neighborhood. It reminded me of something I dare not say. The exterior was old and the inside unclean to my standards (and hopefully not yours either), and himself somewhat unkempt in appearance. The horrible irritating clown music. He always figures out how to get through our community gate.

I overlooked at all that. He was old, but he was making a living. Load an old freezer into the back of the van. Fill it up with boxes of ice creams and cold treats from the Pueblo. Travel from house to house, exciting the desire in the kids, and opening up the parents' wallets to pay for the cool treats ($1 to $2 each; nice margins on a good day).

Yet, he finally did one thing that really irritated me. All of my sympathies for that little old man started to vanish. He was smoking a cigarette while at the same time selling my kids ice cream.

I don't care who you are, educated or semi-ignorant, you should have a tiny bit of common sense. If you want to smoke out your own grandkids, then sadly for them, that's your misdeed. But don't come into my neighborhood trying to sell my kids ice cream I can get them at the grocery store 5 minutes away, and expect me to dish out my money to pay you, if you don't even have the decency to keep your cancer sticks out of the faces (and lungs) of my kids.

I admire your entreprenuerial spirit. I despise your lack of judgement in this matter.

And to all of you who fill your lungs with smoke on a regular basis who take any kind of offense to what I've written here... I could care less. Kill yourselves with cigarettes if you want. Keep your toxic fumes away from the air my family breaths.

The Insider