New York City, December 11, 2012

★★★★ The clouds parted, admitting light and color at dawn. Parting was not the same as departing; a sheet of white held on in the east. But out on Broadway, a ray of sun peeped between a cloud and a tower to flood the face — it had been a while — and glint off a parked motorcycle. The breeze was dry and clean-feeling, steadily colder. Downtown, mottled gray and bright white flowed rapidly overhead. Prince Street felt like a moving walkway, the clouds unscrolling from behind the buildings faster than ordinary parallax. Through the day, blue gradually gained a majority, but not a decisive one. A diffusing layer still screened the sun. But even the nighttime seemed brighter than the damp-clogged recent daytimes had been. Stoplights sparkled into the clear distance up Lafayette Street, dwindling in size but not in visible intensity.