New York City to Lawrenceville, New Jersey, to New York City, September 26, 2012

★ Unstable hour to hour or place to place. The clouds that had muted the morning light over Manhattan thinned out over the Jersey marshes. By Edison, the station platform railings were gleaming. The sky before Princeton Junction was blurrily ridged with brightness and shadow, like an unconvincing projection behind actors in an old movie. Then came blue sky and warm air. At a gas station, out the open side window, the blue and white ended abruptly at a formless sheet of gray, dangling like a torn retina. At night, back in the city, a quick subway ride led from coolness in the West 60s to a stifling SoHo. People walked with furled, unused umbrellas at their sides, in that characteristic dry-umbrella grip, faithful yet alienated.