If I were a business owner, I'd be happy to accept the shipping packaging, and probably only charge you 10%-15% more. I have a strong feeling that the notice given will be soon forgotten once the garbage strike is over. People have short memories when it comes to ecology in my experience. Of course people should break down and fold cardboard and paper, but seldom do. I like the idea of putting compost on fields, but unless Canadians are far different than Americans, that poor farmer will have a field full of aluminum and steel cans, old paint, drain oil, a few assorted sizes and styles of toilets and yes, even the "kitchen sink", assorted stoves, mattresses, box springs, refrigerators, water heaters and other chemicals, foil and whatever other items that aren't needed in a field. I also would not be surprised to see the road ditches filled with bags of garbage and appliances. Call me selfish but I'd have some good sized dogs and a 12 gauge with rock salt and bacon rind ready for when they bark. Why should it be the responsibility of the farmers to deal with peoples' trash? People can certainly bury their table scraps moldy leftovers and dead dogs in their own back yards. Fire up the grill and burn the paper that is contaminated and can't be bundled and recycled. Some paper could be shredded and composted too. And the question remains, if the packaging is offensive now during a strike, why wasn't it offensive before the strike? Then that begs the question, if it was offensive before, why did people buy it? Where are the composters? To me, it's a far better suggestion to start taking responsibility for oneself than try to blackmail a business into financing one's extravagance. Perhaps this strike could accomplish something positive if people start PROPERLY recycling and composting. Having been involved in small businesses for decades I have a special affection for them. The small businesses are truly what built our countries. I take offense when I see an overlysimplistic view of hold the small guys' feet to the fire and try to force them to change the big guys attitudes. Do you do the same thing with car dealers? Threaten them if Detroit doesn't make all cars mauve from now on? Or the mom & pop store if Hershey doesn't put one more almond in their candy bar? I'm especially sensitive when someone tries to hold an employee responsible to change corporate decisions. It's naive and offensive to me. There's a pretty simple solution to the strike issue. Hire an independent company. Or two or three or however many are needed. I'll gamble that you can find people to come in and contract the trucks and get the trashball rolling rather quickly. We contract our own trash service here and I can choose from I think it's five different haulers. Somehow I don't think this is a very good time for someone to go on strike. Especially when there's one very simple alternative that would end it. Then the strikers can go apply at the independents. I doubt they'll get hired.

I'd picked some tomatoes, feeling that whatever didn't appear at the churches that day were totally shot, and dropped them off along with things that I'd made ready on Sat at the second just as the choir was ready to process up the aisle at 10:30. Actually, I could have signed in at the ER and gone back, as it was nearly 2 when they got me into a cubicle, but I'd had little discomfort during the wait. Had an interview, then took a blood test and had an X-ray later and I was having a comfortable time while these procedures were going on. The nurse came to say that they'd found something in my blood, were going to give me a shot, and that if I cut myself that night I'd bleed more than usual. Shortly after that, around 7:00, they released me and as I was walking I had a bit of discomfort if I took a deeper breath. I had a little under a quarter of a mile to walk to the car and the evening was rather chilly, so I thought that it would be a chilly process, as I hadn't brought a jacket ... but when I got about 300 feet from the door, I took a bit of a deper breath and there was a bit of a click or something in my chest, then I could take a deeper breath, so was able to walk to the car more easily and quickly than I'd expected. From then, or just after that, I was able to carry on life mostly as before, though I was rather careful of what I did for some time, keeping watch for any difficulties. Still do, actually, though rather routinely so. ole joyful

I was gone for parts of Feb and Mar of this year and just recent realized I hadn't seen a post by him since my return. I wondered if perhaps something happened while I was out of the country. Socks, if you feel comfortable contacting him. that would be great. Jodi-

I was near deadline at the other library this afternoon. Haven't heard the result of the untrasound on the leg at haematology - they're trying to find whether they think that the clot originated there, or was generated in the lung, it seems. At an appointment today with the folks who did the injection of the foamy stuff into the near-surface vein in the leg to shrink it, just over a couple of weeks prior to the embolism, the doctor told son and me that, as an elective and non-essential procedure, that they'd do no more of them, just in case ... it seems that they deal with near-surface veins only (sort of like regular roads), that the deep veins in the legs are the main carriers (sort of like the freeway). The matter of the clotting could be life-threatening, and they do not want to take chances in that department ... so all that they can offer is compression. As I've been having trouble with the socks that I wash when I take them off at night not being fully dry in the rather chilly house by the second morning ... I ordered a third pair of knee-high pressure socks this morning. The doctor at that clinic has scheduled me for another ultrasound, as she wants to get a picture of what's going on in that leg. I'm to visit my regular doctor for (more or less) annual physical in a couple of weeks. So things seem to be going well. I've had no pain or discomfort since shortly after I left the emergency department of the hospital on the evening of the occurence: I'm a thankful patient. ole joyful