New York City, October 4, 2012

★ Barely saved itself from utter worthlessness. Stifling gray dampness stayed draped over everything, inside and out, atmospheric deadweight. The air conditioner, obeying its thermostat, declined to help. This wasn’t a summer problem. Occasionally a few drops fell, as the dimness stayed and stayed. Minor redemption came with the late sun breaking through — not as a disk but as a lime-tinted globe of light, its sphere projecting color onto the still-murky air all around. The radar and a report from the far side of the water said that it was dumping rain on Brooklyn. New Jersey lay under roiling rosy gray. But over the West Side was a sudden swath of high blue, streaked with pink.