Cause & Effect...

Chose to break the lock box and turn the heat up to 68... 

Housemates came out to see what the noise (breaking the lock box) was... 

My peer told me I would have to reimburse them $20 for the lock box; I said no because I hadn't agreed to it being put there...

The three of them got together and had a confab and then came out to confront me..

We have now had a blazing row - well, I did the  ranting, raving and blazing while my housemates sat in manipulative calm, being arrogant and patronising, showing me how much better, more evolved, more sophisticated they were as people - about the crap that has been going on here...

End result - nothing good gained (aside from putting on the table all that I have been observing/thinking/feeling these past three months) except my assertion and their agreement that we (Connor and I) will be out of here as soon as we can and that in the meantime we should stay out of each others' way... 

It turns out that they thought I was turning the thermostat up to 70 instead of 68 to spite them.   In reality, in the dim light of the early morning, without my glasses, I sometimes missed the 68 mark and ended up closer to the 70 point...

Their final remark was that if I turned the thermostat up to 70, they would turn it back down... which was all that needed to happen in the first place!

All about attributing false motives to others, rather than bothering to clarify/ask, and about power and control...

Which speaks volumes about how my housemates view themselves and others and function in life, in spite of their Buddhist teachings...

PS - WAS THAT A RED OR BLUE GEM I PUT OUT THERE?   RIGHT NOW, IT FEELS LIKE A RED GEM, BUT I'VE LEARNED THAT SOMETIMES WHAT LOOKS LIKE A RED GEM IN ONE LIGHT, IS ACTUALLY A BLUE GEM IN ANOTHER... ANOTHER AND/ALSO PARADOX LEADING TO A SINGULARITY OF "IT JUST IS"...