Climate Change

 Although I read everything that I see on climate change I do not mention it very much. My mother was an environmentalist for sure being conscious of the changes in our world and being a conserver of everything all of my life at home which was the first twenty years. She saved everything to reuse it and reveled in that actually whenever she found a new use for something. I have twenty five years of her letters to me after we moved away from London, Ontario. I would venture to say that much of the writing was about conservation as she was really keen on that life style. It did rub off on me for sure although I am not as conscious of it as she was although my eldest daughter has followed very much in her footsteps. 

Today there is an article in PAST, the newsletter of the Prehistoric Society on Climate Change and the Neanderthal demise. It is just under two pages long and entitled: What killed the Neanderthals? Understanding environmental change during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in northern Spain. It was an intriguing read especially given our own state of climate change in this century particularly. We do carry some neanderthal ancestry in our genes with Eastern Asians carrying the highest amounts, then Europeans and Africans carrying around 0.3%. In my family we also have denisovan ancestry. Asians carry the most Denisovan DNA and Europeans also carry smaller amounts. Considering all of my ancient lines eventually ended up in the British Isles which has always rather amazed me I often wonder how many people have 2% Neanderthal and 3% Denisovan which adds up to a whopping 5% or 1 in  20 of our genes descends from these ancient peoples. I am rather convinced that our Denisovan ancestry comes from our ancient maternal DNA line which wintered at Ukraina during the Last Glacial Maximum 15,000 plus years ago. Since the rest of our lines are predominantly western/northern European/British Isles with the yDNA likely wintering in the area around the eastern Mediterranean, it is less likely that we would have acquired Denisovan ancestry from these lines.

Climate Change is here to stay and we do not know the direction that it will take. It is unlikely that we can control the changes that occur and must simply adapt to these changes to survive. Is it Mother Earth's method of managing the Earth? 

We must do all that we can to prevent further heating of the environment. 

On that note, it is Garbage Collection day and we can put out six items for actual garbage. Generally I just have about half or less of a green plastic garbage bag to put out and it is pretty light and squishy as we try hard to minimize our garbage. However with downsizing I tend to put out more and this time it was six items which included my mother in law's hope chest (a basic wooden box with a thin lining of cedar which had long ago lost its wonderful odour) which was empty, three wooden supports that have held the canoe in place for the last fourty four years and were along one side of the garage and an old mop that I couldn't take apart and had seen better days. Gradually the garage is emptier and emptier and this week we will do a trial run to see if everything will go into the shed that is left. The next garbage day (every two weeks for actual garbage) the rest of the wood (small pieces of 2x4) will go along with a metal step that is pretty rusty now having been a holder in the garage for various items and that will be pretty much the end of everything surplus in the shed and garage. I thought we would need another dump run but it can be managed on the Collection Days. Next item is thinking about draining the outside taps so no frozen pipes and then covering the air conditioner. It is a cyclical thing looking after a house. I have been watching our outside carefully these days so that nothing comes to spend the winter. The attics are fairly tight but the metal siding can surprise you sometimes so I keep an eye on it. I will put cameras up there though just in case. I like the blink cameras because I can set them to automatic and they take pictures of anything that moves. 

We were started downsizing Edward and I around 2018 with the thoughts of moving eventually to a smaller place. At first we looked at condos but really Edward wanted to be in a smaller house with a yard that he could work in but COVID came along and that changed both of our lives forever. I am still here but gradually the rooms are less full and I am slowly getting into his research. It has proven to be a most difficult task since I did, after DNA testing, leave genealogy as such and concentrate on DNA of my lines. Edward continued with his genealogy building up a tree of over 100,000 cousins going back to the early days of Colonial America and then back across the ocean to France, Holland, Germany and small amounts of Scandinavian and British Isles with France, Holland and Germany each representing about 30% of his ancestry leaving 10% for Scandinavia and the British Isles. I listened as he talked about his discoveries and helped him researching on some of the databases although I do not think he actually needed my help he just wanted me to be there sometimes when he was working away. I moved back upstairs around 2014 because I felt he was somewhat lonely up on the top floor by himself when I was in the basement. That way he was just a couple of steps away and could come and chat whenever he wanted to do that although the exercise going to the basement would have been good he didn't come very often. 

On to weightlifting and calisthenics to carry on with my athletic endeavours of the day. I have already done my fifteen minutes of stretching when I awake. Plus I walk 250 steps every hour on the hour. I am forever conscious of a young ophthalmologist student saying to my grandmother I would be blind by the time I was twenty years  of age (I was quite young at the time and wearing very thick glasses - still do but the marvels of science means that they are thin now) although that did not come to pass I was ever the more aware that one must take care of oneself (along with a regular checkup at the doctor which I have tried to do the last ten years or so) and maintain an active lifestyle throughout my life. At 76 I am fairly active but like most people my age I have arthritis, cataracts and a heart murmur which I must always take care of and so I do. God told us that we should take care of our bodies and it is our duty to do that.