Heat.

Love the heat, love the summer, but four days of this intensity is a lot if wrapped deep into the city. SL and I spent our first day of the season at Riis Park Beach yesterday, where it was about 15 degrees cooler than in Greenpoint. Gorgeous, windy, and water so cold I couldn't feel my legs 10 seconds after wading in. No matter. In we went. Broke down last night and put in the central air at home, after spending 2 hours cooling on the stoop with my neighbors Betty and Cookie, gossiping about the neighborhood. They have lived at 110 for 47 (!!) years, raising both their families in our building, after growing up in the 'Point. Telling me stories about seeing movies in the theater that used to be where the Rainbow is now. I can't imagine this life: living within a 10 block radius since the day I was born. A throwback to the old ways of never moving, these two ladies are a wealth of local information, and hilarious to boot.

Today I'm ensconced in the a/c at a friend's, babysitting her three-month old son while she runs into the city for some errands. My summer is looking quiet, with trips to London and Thailand on the horizon in July for Visionaire projects. Not a lot of work, but just enough to live on. We're putting in some gifted-to-us solid oak flooring in this week, and cooking from the farmer's market most nights on the new gas grill, but I don't have much else. Here is where I am. For once.