Now I remember why I always lose weight during the summer: it’s too freakin’ hot to EAT.

And I also remember why we hate our apartment for four months every year: no central air.

I know that many people love summertime. I hafta say that I’m rather ambivalent. There’s always plenty of neat stuff going on. Plenty of great concerts, beer drinking, ice cream, sunshine. But I hate the feeling of being shuttled from a/c compartment to a/c compartment. When it’s 90 degrees and humid, like it was yesterday and is again today, I really don’t wish to be anywhere outside or anywhere that isn’t cool and serene.

Example: last night the heat finally caused Andy and I to lose our tempers for no good reason. Other than it was 8 o’clock and the apartment was 92 degrees. We grudgingly installed the a/c units, and then, perversely, we watched “Lawrence of Arabia.” And then our tempers flared again, which caused us to shout things like, “That’s it, I’m not doing this tonight!” and “Goddamn motherfucker I’m so mad!”

So now things are set up to keep the bedroom and the front room cool, but there will be streches of whole weeks when the rest of the apartment will be a virtual no-man’s land, when we will wake up extra-early just so there’s time to have coffee before the scorch begins again.

Yesterday we went to the Landmark and saw “Friends With Money.” It was exceptionally good. No sweeping statements about materialism or clear-cut reductions of relationship issues. No: just several finely-wrought characters, real people, often hilarious, sometimes sad, struggling, living, searching. Frances McDormand was just awesome, but really everyone was solid, including Jennifer Aniston. Man, she can act! I can’t recommend this movie enough. It’s so refreshing to see a modern movie with real people in it instead of walking ciphers or animated plot complications.

I could definitely relate to the money issues in the film. Money changes everything: how often we forget! Think of the people in Java. Over 5,000 dead from the earthquake. A toll that’s sure to rise. How many things have I already mentioned in this post that I take for granted?