TIME On The Road*

Typical pack of Timeless Time in its typical drop!

“Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still.”    ― David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

I began noticing Timeless TIME on the street in our neighborhood back in 2013 when Jackson and I would walk. Usually we would find a Timeless TIME hard pack opened with a couple of cigarettes missing once or twice a month along a quarter mile stretch of Haw Creek Circle here in Asheville, NC. I started documenting these sightings with my smart phone and posting pictures on Facebook. I have over 60 photos of Timeless TIME taken over the past several years in different conditions and at different seasons of the year.

“It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.”  ― Vincent van Gogh

It's an ongoing mystery! 

Why does someone do this? Are they a closet smoker and don't wish to be found out? 

A hard pack of Timeless TIME costs nearly $5.00/hard pack or about $0.25/cigarette here in North Carolina. With 16 to 17 cigarettes left in the pack, this smoker tosses about $4.00 on the street. Why?

Why does the toss, drop or pitch seem to occur in this same area? What makes this area of road so attractive or special to toss the remaining Timeless TIME cigarettes?

“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.”                                                   ― Susan Sontag

A crushed and broken pack of Timeless Time.

Who is this mystery smoker? A couple of neighbors have an idea or at least a theory. There is a thin, lanky, bare-chested, long haired, dark sun glassed, gentleman who "jogs" in our neighborhood known as "Running Man," (although he waddles more like a duck when he runs!) He's been spotted driving slowly in his car through our neighborhood smoking. We can't be certain Timeless TIME is his cigarette of choice but he is a prime suspect! A couple of well-placed trail cams with motion detectors might reveal the mystery smoker and confirm the theory. But then my Facebook page would become boring ...

Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time—past and future—the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.”     ― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Only once...something different!

I did find a hard pack of menthol Marlboro cigarettes along the side of the road one time with the same MO - couple of cigarettes missing. Maybe this smoker's regular store was out of Timeless TIME? 
 
Why does this person smoke Timeless TIME? 

Timeless TIME reviews:

"I am now smoking your menthol 100 lights in the light green color box and really like them. Would like to have some coupons."     - bktenorio6             
                           

"I really love the menthol 100 full flavor of Timeless Time cigarettes. Really hoping the tobacco isn't sprayed with radiation though." - Lori Ann

"Were do I start. Boy do these make me feel like a bag of shit. I tried them becuase there only 4 bucks a pack and I'l never smoke another cigarette again in my life because of these. I smoke one and they made me feel like shit the rest of the day. At first I didnt believe in that FSC stuff but after smokin these I see its true. I had headache stomach ache confusion, flet like vomitting all of the symptoms. Please avoid these try roll your owns instead" - xmaner

Timeless TIME cigarettes are made by KT&G Global, headquartered in South Korea. They've been manufacturing cigarettes for over 110 years. They are a market leader selling their cigarettes in over 50 countries around the world. They recognize they are selling a dangerous product as noted on their webpage: "While operating in a most controversial industry, we take pride in the way we run our business Sustainably & Responsibly. We will continue to deliver our value to our stakeholders today and tomorrow by investing in our people and our processes."
 

Several packs of Timeless TIME from a 6 to 8 week period.
And yes, I do pick up this "litter" and dispose of it properly!

It has been suggested that I created this as a prank! First of all, I'm not a smoker and never have been. My father smoked at least a pack of cigarettes a day, and I'm convinced they were a contributing cause of his untimely death of a massive heart attack at age 62 in 1988.
  
“I'm afraid of time ... I mean, I'm afraid of not having enough time. Not enough time to understand people, how they really are, or to be understood myself. I'm afraid of the quick judgements or mistakes everybody makes. You can't fix them without time. I'm afraid of seeing snapshots, not movies.”                                              ― Ann Brashares 

Second, I'm too cheap to spend this kind money on a prank! 

It's also been suggested that this some kind of way to deal drugs or pass on information. 
 

“Don't waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.”  ― Paulo Coelho
 
“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” ― William Penn

“Time is the longest distance between two places.”
― Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie  

OK. I've given this blog enough Timeless TIME. It's TIME to move on! Love to hear your thoughts, ideas or questions!

* Title credit goes to high school friend, Donnie Goodwin