New York City, September 6, 2012

★ The better it looked, the worse it felt, and it never looked all that good. A mild, grayed-out humid morning brightened irregularly toward a hot, brighter, still-humid noon. A day for carrying along a cheap umbrella, stashing it in a corner, and forgetting to bring it home. Having reached its uncomfortable peak — beating down on a double armload of groceries in the early afternoon — the brightness retreated. The sun descended as a white spot, behind clouds with the dirty, rusty tinge of tapwater after a boiler-repair job. You could nearly look right at it.