Good Morning...or Not

So.....I wake up early this morning, not to the sounds of cute little birds singing outside my window, but to wave after wave of sirens going by.  I have no idea what is going on.  I can't see anything unusual from my windows, nor do I smell any smoke.  I guess that is a good thing.  I won't have to evacuate.

The sounds of the sirens have awakened my little nine-pound bundle of energy named Lilly, the Yorkie.  She doesn't bark at sirens.  But she is awake and she wants the dog biscuit she gets upon my awakening each morning.  And she wants it now!  She has me well trained.  I tell her that in doggy years she is at the very least, a seventy year old woman who should be asleep at this hour, rather than yipping at my bedroom door.  She ignores me.  So to keep her from annoying my neighbors, I get up.

On my way to the treat jar in the kitchen, I slip and slide in a pool of hair ball cat puke.  Thank you so very much, Kizzie the cat.  Kizzie has been leaving me similar gifts this week.  I know that this is fairly normal for a cat to hack up a hair ball now and then, but I really hope she is finished with this for a while.

By the time I clean off the bottom of my foot and wipe up the mess on the floor, Lilly is in a frenzy of what I call the Yorkie Dance Team Cookie Dance.  Her sister, Jessie Jane, having been awakened by all the commotion, has joined in the dance.  The only good thing I can say is that Jessie does her Cookie Dance silently.  I don't think I have ever heard her bark.  I will never understand why they get so excited about a tiny bit of rock hard, foul smelling dog biscuit.  But they do.  Every morning.

My little old lady pooches settle back down in their beds for a nap, which will last pretty much the whole morning.  Kizzie takes her place in the chair by the window to keep an eye on the world outside.  I am left here............. without a calming cigarette.

The legislature in my state has decided to double the tax on cigarettes to help pay for a  fancy new football stadium.  And because I am ornery enough to refuse to contribute one thin dime towards a stadium being built for a bunch of over paid jocks that I will never see play in said stadium because I can't afford the price of a ticket, I will buy no more cigarettes.  I don't know which is worse - the withdrawl that I am going through or listening to the self-righteous non-smokers pontificate about how healthier I will be because I can't afford cigarettes any more.

I don't know about you, but I am really tired of government "helping" me.  I have known for quite some time that quitting smoking was in my near future.  But I resent the hell out of government forcing me to quit by jacking up the price of a pack.  I think that this would have been much easier for me if I had the choice of making that decision on my own, in my own time.  I probably would have, left to my own choices in the matter, been much less grumpy.

So....how is your day going so far?