New York City, March 11, 2012

★★★ Ashy gray, with ambient dampness. The neutral temperature was good enough for a motorcyclist in brown leather, roaring out alone in front of the the regular traffic, then braking to pull into the filing station on Houston. A lighter motorbike followed, then another motorcycle. A child with its head sticking out of a zipped-up stroller bag yelled without grief or malice, stretching its lungs. On the way home from work, it was time to unbutton the coat and open the hooded jacked under it and let the air inside. Yet another motorcycle was gassing up. People were comfortable enough to stand still in the middle of the sidewalk, heads bowed to their mobile devices, tapping away. Up at Columbus Circle, daylight, saved, flowed down the escalator into the subway station and sifted through the overhead grate onto the uptown 1 tracks.