The weather is quite mild for this week and that is a good thing, since the heat is off in Tara Lee. The circulation pump is broken running with an ear tearing sound that woke me up last Sunday morning. I turned it off since it might have seized up and over heated.

The plumber’s - Pete - emergency service did not function, but on Monday morning they informed me that the will not come in to do any work, because of outstanding bills. They also mentioned that Peter Judge the building manager has remained out of touch for six months.

I have left messages on Sunday and Monday with this building’s present manager and the former one, who are related, but have had no response to date, except for the one from ‘Pete the Plumber’.

So we are without heat, a building manager and a building plumber willing to make repairs. What to do as a renter with the cold weather not far away? I’m making plans and now need to collect the data and make the contacts aimed at getting some actions.

This aft coffee with Jack and right now I’m doing the laundry I just recall and need to rotate loads in about fifteen minutes. Yesterday afternoon Don came by to pick me up for a visit to Black Diamond. There we had lunch in “Marv’s Classic Soda Shop” located at the west end of Centre Avenue.

Don suggested that we try the ‘Hamburger Beef sandwich’ which was totally unknown to me, but well known to him. It is an open face sandwich with the burger patty on the one half slice covered with an onion sauce, all with fries and coleslaw. Quite tasty and a welcome brake from the usual fare, but my favourite Jell-O had long ago disappeared from this classic menu.

The drive out to Black Diamond was a real treat with the sunlight highlighting the pleated topography…

The drive out to Black Diamond was a real treat with the sunlight highlighting the pleated topography, which was all covered with snow and accentuated with many horses that were still out in the fields. Winter does have its enchantments, but you have to be properly prepared to enjoy them.

I did a bit of sorting last night even though my daily routine had been broken due to the heating problem. Time for the laundry and on we go until 9:30am.

Last night Michelle stopped by to coordinate our information and taken actions regarding the common problem of our building heat and management vacuum. We’ve been here for over ten years and therefore know some of the scenarios that play out at our trusty Tara Lee.

That old lacks management style from the past now threatens to morph into incompetence with the unpaid repair bills, the absence of an addressable party, while the rent cheques are being cashed and payments made.

Yesterday I printed of the image ‘Asteroids that buzz planet Earth’ as depicted in the web article. The chart shows twenty asteroids large and small from 2010 to 2190 that are in this ‘buzz’ category. The article reports a new one just discovered, large and with a changing, but not yet threatening trajectory, which is now being monitored.

This is some thing the dinosaurs did not know about and it killed them. That is what struck me this morning: “What we humans do not know can kill us.” I put it this way, because in 1995 my then colleague Jim pooh-poohed my putting up a news paper clip about just such a possibility.
Now we even have a chair at the University of Calgary dedicated to near asteroid tracking and discovery.

If tolerance is a necessary quality for diversified humanity to survive on our planet and we don’t practice it, then we will not survive.

These are physical dangers that we can identify, but what about conceptual and attitudinal dangers. This was the aspect I considered this morning with regard to ’tolerance’, the topic for my next talk. Consider this thought: “If tolerance is a necessary quality for diversified humanity to survive on our planet and we don’t practice it, then we will not survive.”

Evolution in the biological realm is possible because the biology of the system can make adaptations based on its experiences. It cannot adapt to what is does not experience, hence the dinosaurs being unaware of the asteroid threats succumbed to one at long last.

We humans can adapt to this same threat by preparing counter measures, because we have become aware of this threat, but only about fifty years ago. Such a threat is physical and we must ensure our physical safety to survive, but the physical security is not sufficient as the case of the dinos shows. Knowledge of crucial aspects is also required.

We must also be conscious of other possible threats and we identified the long term threat of the asteroids, that cannot be adapted to through a biological feedback loop. Consciousness is the key in learning about such a distant threat.

Testosterone is the most dangerous substance that I know.

But being conscious generates its own threats, which are non physical. It is like a General of the leaving US forces in Afghanistan said last year: “Testosterone is the most dangerous substance that I know.” And that statement aims at the problem we humans have in managing our emotions. They are needed to give us energy to live, work, invent and play, but can turn destructive as well.

The question as I formulate that for myself at times is this: “Do we really understand our own human nature well enough to survive as a species?” My answer is that at this present time we have some slack to improve this self knowledge, but the longer we wait the less becomes our chance to take corrective action.

Do we really understand our own human nature well enough to survive as a species?

We need to make serious business of studying and understanding the origins of human nature and its path to conscious awareness. If we do not learn how our own consciousness functions it will do us in, because we will lack the social skills to live together in our divers humanity. <10:28am~