Peaboy

The Mural Amphitheater used to be one of my favorite places back in the Pain in the Grass days. Now they have weekend movies which I didn't know about till just now and its the last weekend. The Seattle center emails were going in my junk mail, doh!

The line up this weekend is as follows:

Friday - 8 August

• Dusk - The Goonies
  Yes back when Cyndi Lauper and Cpt. Lou Albano were buddies she was in a movie that I don't even think I liked as a kid although I did like Cyndi Lauper's music. Hey, Girls just wanna have fun is a classic and now I know you will have that song stuck in your head all weekend! She doesn't really have anything to do with the film, but for me they both mark the same moment in time.

Saturday  - 9 August

• Dusk - Batman Begins
  The year is 2005, and everyone has realized how stupid it was that Michael Keaton played Batman so they decided to remake the series but now they are gory and the heroines are hotter. I must say, big improvement. Oh yeah the 1989 Batman movie also wasn't making money so they needed to rip off today's HS and College kids who could have just rented the original.
• 11:59 - Rocky Horror Picture Show
  All you need to know about this is Meatloaf rocks and Susan Sarandon is very hot in a sort of innocent girl goes wild kind of way. Oh yeah you also need to bring about 150 different props, dress as your favorite character, memorize the lyrics, the dance, and the lines and the crowd refrains to the lines and then while the movie is on you need to sing and speak over the top of the movie and if you're good act out the whole thing on stage in front of the movie and basically not watch the movie at all. That's the sign of a good movie, when no one watches it for 33 years and yet its still being played every Saturday night at Midnight.

I might have to stop in to check out the crowd for RHPS. I had my high school moments of attending that every weekend back at Shawnee HS in Medford Lakes, NJ... ah the memories... RockyCon2008 is in Atlantic City, NJ, of course!

BTW, whatever DID happen to Saturday night?

Nick Licata replied to me last week about the bag fee and styrofoam ban.

Thank you for writing me about the 20 cent bag fee, and styrofoam container ban.

Although I was out of town during the final Council vote, I supported the Council’s action since I was successful in having language included in the legislation that required Seattle Public Utilities to report back to the Council by November 25 for ensuring access and deployment of reusable bags to low-income people, including those living in Seattle Housing Authority housing and other low-income and senior housing facilities.

Sincerely,

Nick Licata

When your knee hurts and you are having a hard time getting around you feel like you took a knee to groin because you realize maybe you're not 20 anymore. You'd think being closer to 40 than 20 I would have figured this out already, but Peas have anti-aging properties that make that impossible. Most notably we have no concept of time or time order so I can remember something from when I was 10 like they just happened and frequently I can't remember just happened. :-)

So back to the knee.... This passed week my knee has been bad enough that I worked from home one day and moved up my doctor's appointment 6 days to get it looked at. I prefer a Naturopathic Doctor but I hadn't had a permanent doctor since I changed jobs so I went to the Bastyr clinic and hooked up with an ND there. He looked over me knee and said what everyone (yes you too Dawn) has told me that I have some tendinitis, maybe a strain around the point at which my IT Band attaches to my knee (see pic at left from AAFP site). That's good news because it means its nothing major and I don't need surgery or anything drastic. We're basically going to be doing a heat\ice regimen and I have a follow-up with a more specialized ND to look at what physical therapy I should be doing. I also went to an acupuncturist yesterday as well for the knee, that was a great experience.

While the ND was a graduated board certified doctor, I went to the teaching clinic for my acupuncture because I wanted to get in that day. Once they did the routine new patient stuff I put on a gown and laid down on a table. They elected to do needles and cupping. The cupping was to help loosen my IT Band and I think to increase flow into the area. To be honest I don't quite understand it. I've heard of it and I'm pretty open to trying things so why not. The pic on the left is of the bruises after the cupping procedure. They don't hurt or anything they're like hickeys more than bruises. (more on cupping)

I also had acupuncture done at the same time I think I had about 15 to 20 needles in me. That was very cool. I have piercings and I've done temporary piercings so needles don't bother me at all (Gary just feinted). These needles are VERY small and I barely felt them go in at all. They then rotate them a bit and adjust the depth to hit the right spot. I'm being purposefully vague because I don't have the right lingo. I need to read up on this. I can tell you they place some around my knee, one both my feet, in the webbing between my thumb and forefinger on my left had and then around my right arm in various (6-10) places. The theory as they explained it to me is that the right arm and elbow are connected to the left leg and knee. I'm not sure about all this, but I can tell you that they were palpating (touching) my right arm and they found places that hurt almost exactly in the same kind of places as my knee. They only told me about the connection afterwards. I don't have any pics of this I'll ask them to take some next time.

Today I certainly don't feel healed but the intensity of the pain is decreased quite a bit. I am still favoring my good leg, but I'm not getting the shooting pains anymore. I call that success!

I'll let you know more about the knee after next weeks ND\PT and Acupuncture appointments.

Richard replied, he's a sponsor so he's on our side for sure.

Thank you very much for your support for my legislation banning styrofoam and placing a fee on disposable bags. I developed this idea as part of my Zero Waste initiative a year ago, and it is great to see that it has caught on and now has overwhelming support in the community!

The Environment, Emergency Management, and Utilities committee will vote both ordinances out of committee on July 22 and I anticipate a vote in full Council on July 28. Thanks to the efforts of hundreds of people like you, I believe that both the foam and bag ordinances will not only pass, but do so unanimously. Congratulations to you for your part in this victory for a clean and healthy environment and a sustainable Seattle!

In the coming months, Seattle Public Utility will refine their plans for implementation. One of my primary objectives in this process is to ensure that this proposal not place a significant burden on seniors and other people on fixed incomes, food bank customers, and other recipients of direct assistance.

Although the transition to new practices will undoubtedly take some time for grocery stores, restaurants, and consumers to adjust to the new system, we are confident that the program will be a success.

Thanks again for your support.

Sincerely,

Richard Conlin

Another reply from last week (sorry) Richard is also generally supportive of the proposals but plans to offer amendments that I highlight in bold. I think we're headed toward a compromise, here's Richard McIver's full reply.

You are among a large number of citizens who have emailed me to register support for the proposed 20 cent fee for plastic and paper grocery bags and a prohibition on Styrofoam food containers. Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) estimates 360 million disposable bags are used in the city every year, most made of plastic. They estimate that charging this modest fee for these specific grocery disposable bags will be cut by 70% or more, preventing the manufacture of 184 million bags per year.

The proposed ban on Styrofoam containers used by the food service industry would include such items as “clamshells,” plates, trays, and hot and cold beverage cups used at restaurants, delicatessens, fast food outlets, and coffee shops, and meat trays and egg cartons used at grocery stores. The legislation would also require all food service businesses to convert to compostable or locally recyclable disposable containers by July 1, 2010.

I support the goal of reducing the quantity that these items being added to our solid waste stream, or the litter generated by them. I also suspect that we will see cities across the nation adopting similar policies in the near future. I do, however, have some reservations and want to be sure the Council is taking enough time to fully explore ramifications and alternatives, both to consumers and businesses.

I am concerned about the impact of the bag fee on low income individuals and families, and intend to offer an amendment that would exempt food stamp recipients from having to pay the fee. (However, I certainly support the distribution of reusable bags to this population group so that they too can help us eliminate the unnecessary use of disposable bags.)

While I support switching to non-Styrofoam food containers, I am concerned about a blanket prohibition on the use of Styrofoam meat trays and whether there are really any satisfactory and affordable sanitary substitute products available to grocers. As such, I intend to offer an amendment to the ordinance that would exempt Styrofoam meat trays (not other Styrofoam products) for two additional years while the grocery industry continues to work at finding a suitable sanitary and affordable alternative. I am concerned about both the public safety and aesthetic issues associated with blood seepage from meat products.

I think it is very likely the Council will approve this proposal, and I would hope that my concerns will be addressed and that I will vote in favor. Be assured I will keep your comments in mind as the debate progresses.

Richard J. McIver
Seattle City Council

She replied a week ago, I'm just a slacker in posting here reply. She brings up similar points to other council members regarding the foam ban. In general I think there is some concern about meat tray and tack out dishes. The thing that is weird to me is that I remember when all the take out I had as a kid was paper. Don't know why now that's impossible.

Here is Sally Clark's reply:

Thank you for your email about the proposal to place a 20 cent fee on plastic and paper bags at grocery stores, along with a phased-in ban on non-recyclable food containers (e.g. Styrofoam). Sorry for the mass-email response, but I've received a quite a few emails on the topic. This is the fastest way to get a response back to everyone.

I am co-sponsoring both pieces of legislation and am looking forward to the bills coming to a vote in the weeks ahead.

I'm aware that the over-all impact of the bag fee will be less than other actions we need to take to stem climate change impacts, but I do think it's a significant step toward decreasing Seattle's hunger for plastic bags. Currently, we dispose of more than 360 million bags per year. It's estimated that the switch will save 4,000 tons of greenhouse gas per year -- the equivalent of taking 665 cars off the road. All the money collected by the city (a small portion stays with the stores for administrative costs) will go toward waste prevention, recycling, city cleanup and environmental education programs. The City owes you at least one free cloth bag. I'm committed to getting more free bags into people's hands, especially low-income people who count every penny.

Along with the bag fee comes a ban on non-recyclable food containers. This one may be harder to institute because of a lack of substitutes in some cases, but I think we can phase in the change. Some restaurants are already making the transition. If the City Council votes to implement the ban, restaurants have a year in which to transition to recyclable to-go containers. Some of these new containers are corn-based, which presents its own set of environmental concerns, but, overall, this is a step forward. The biggest challenge I've heard about so far relates to packaging meat and finding a Styrofoam replacement that won't act like an over-soaked sponge. I trust the market will respond to the demand for a Styrofoam substitute, but we may have to phase in the ban over time if we can’t find a reasonable substitute.

Some of you have written that the bag fee and Styrofoam ban aren't the right approach or are over-reaching. If climate change weren't such an urgent issue I would agree that these proposals shouldn't be brought up. However, I think this is one of many changes that make sense when we calculate the real cost of waste.

Again, thank you for your message and for taking the time to advocate for sustainability in Seattle. The City Council is currently reviewing the details of the legislation in the Environment, Emergency Management & Utilities Committee, and I'll be looking forward to it coming to full Council for a vote in the near future. Please contact me anytime regarding this issue or other city matters.

Sincerely,

Sally

Sally J. Clark
Seattle City Council
600 Fourth Ave., 2nd Floor
PO Box 34025
Seattle, WA 98104-1860
sally.clark@seattle.gov

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