The heat is on

Someone needs to turn off the broiler. Without a cloud in sight, it’s been a hot couple of days here in Campomarino, and domani (tomorrow) it’s supposed to jump up around 100. Monday, my first official day at Lido Ritz Mare beach club, should see a reprieve in the temperature. I’ve been heading over there the past couple of days, having a soda, people watching, and planning my next script. I find the place relaxing to get my words on paper. I’ve already written the first scene, introducing my protagonist to the screen. I’ve continued my walking that I started last April, and with the heat, the pounds are sort of sweating right off of me. Instead of Richard Simmons’s “Sweating to the Oldies,” it’s pretty much me sweating with the oldies as I’m pretty much always around people in their 70s and 80s. Sweating is the name of the game here. People look at you strange if you run the AC more than a little while a day, and it’s blasphemous to run it at night while you sleep. So I wait until a few hours before bed, run it to cool the place down and remove some humidity, then turn it off before going to sleep. At this moment I’m sitting under a fan on the patio...sweating. It has been nice running into my cousin Gino a few times already. Today we bumped into each other while I was on my morning walk to my weigh-in at the pharmacy (9 pounds down since I left NJ), and he took me to his house to see his wife Carmella, and to meet a couple of other cousins Domenico and Elisabetta. Always nice to meet family for the first time. Tomorrow is lunch at Zia’s house, which I’m going to try and have her switch locations to my place because it’s always cooler (very relative). No need to pick the hotter location when it’s almost 100 degrees outside.