New York City, August 15, 2012

★★★★ Difficult but rewarding. Things seemed foul and aimless right through noon — clouds chasing sun chasing clouds; drizzle coming and going on the gummy air. Condensation dripped from the ceiling of the subway car. But as the afternoon wore on, no matter what distracting reversals the sky was going through, the air kept getting cooler and less stifling. A dirty brown mass of clouds gathered over downtown, then power-washed itself clean, into sunshine. Brooklyn was reportedly underwater. Clouds gathered again. In the mouth of the Columbus Circle station, dismayed commuters clogged the space between the turnstiles and the foot of the stairs, hiding from a new downpour. Water streamed through the grate into the litter-filled trackbed of the uptown 1. Up by Lincoln Center, the gutters and crosswalks of Broadway were overflowing. A shop clerk stood, hands clasped, watching drenched pedestrians hurry past his store’s plate glass, his professional greeting posture unavoidably tinged with superiority. Then, at last, the rain passed for good. A gorgeous amber glow gathered over the Hudson, then spread upward, turning pinker and pinker as it ascended.