For my seven past summers in Beijing, and actually all my more than 30 past summers, I either didn’t lived in an air-conditioned home, or when I live in one, I seldom used air-conditioners. I don’t like big electricity bills or the air blown from long-serving air-conditioners that smells of old dust particles.

But, this summer is different. My family now live in a home we can call our own. My wife and I bought it last year literally right before we could no longer afford it. For your information, the price of our apartment in southern suburban Beijing has sky-rocketed by around 85% since we bought it last June.

So, on paper, we are a millionaire family. But, in reality, we have to live with a mortgage that is a drain on our income. This will be the case for another 14 years if we cannot pay it off earlier. According to Rich Dad, our home is a liability because it does not generate cash and only takes it away from us.

We will have another drain soon this autumn though another very sweet one: My wife is expecting our first baby this November. To make our home a better place to live in this summer, we will buy at least one air-conditioner this Dragon Boat Day holiday. We will need it to live through the coming hot summer days, as well as late autumn and early spring days, when it can be very cold at home before and after centrally provided heating is available.

By at “least one”, I mean we may buy two, each for the living room that we hope can cool and warm three indoor spaces (the living room, the south bedroom, and my home office) and for the north bedroom. This depends on our money-related moods and sales skills of the shop’s staff.

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Update: We bought two Grees.

It’s been an excruciatingly horrible time for people in Daxing, Beijing for the past several weeks, where my wife and I moved into an apartment we bought last summer as our first home. One (November 23, 2009), two (December 28, 2009), and three (December 31, 2009) gruesome murders had happened in less than 40 days. These murders are alarmingly common in two aspects: the suspects are extremely closely associated with the victims and whole families were eliminated.

In the first murder, a man knifed to death his wife, his sister, his father, his mother, and finally his 2-year-old son. In the second, a man did the same to his wife and son. These two murders happened in the same neighborhood. And in the third, a man killed one of his friends and his girlfriend, and then the friend’s pregnant wife, and her father and mother.

The third murder wasn’t confirmed in major news portals until today. Before that, I’d read reports that dismissed it as rumor.

What gets on my nerves most about these cases is that police can do virtually nothing to prevent such crimes – the killers are those that no one will ever believe will do anything as bad as that to their loved ones and people around him.

Humans have killer instinct in them. But what can bring it out? Pressures and pains brought about by reckless efforts to make or earn money and nowhere to find a helping, reassuring hand? Maybe. As far as I know, few people today bother to set aside some time to nurse their souls or have time for a respite from cut-throat competition.

Home is a place where you can be yourself and where you pull off all your masks and hats – and your guard is down. It’s a place where unhindered communication among its members and closest people from outside should be there in the first place to prevent any small disturbances, let alone such shocking killings.