Two little things

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

It’s 95-word fiction time again. Deadline’s getting short, and although we’ve run the announcement twice in the paper, I haven’t seen the response I’ve seen in years past. Yeah, yeah, I know, people always send in their stuff at the last minute, but I have a feeling that a lot of people have other things on their mind this year.

The deadline is July 16, but since the ads declaring the contest’s existence didn’t run during the two issues I was on vacation, some of you are getting very short notice. You need to see the full rules, so check out the ad running on page 19.

So, c’mon people. Be creative, be clichéd, be terse, but most all, be yourself.

Or something.

I smoked cigarettes regularly for years. I still smoke occasionally.

Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe, but it’s the truth. I only bring it up to show my extreme sympathy with the people who are suffering from the allergies brought on by the smoke from these wildfires.

I have had a bloody nose virtually every day since I came home from vacation. I went to the gym and couldn’t do but half of my usual aerobic routine. I can’t sleep at night because the smoke brings on my asthma, and every time I start to nod off on the couch or in my bed, it’s like someone has put a pillow over my face, and I wake up.

The thing to remember is that we’ve got it easy compared to those firefighters and property owners in California who are having their entire lives turned upside down.

Kids, if you’ve been picking up cigarettes now and then at parties or whenever, this is what habitual smoking feels like.