New York City, April 29, 2013

★★★ Tints of clear-sky colors, yellow and blue, shone somehow through an otherwise wholly overcast morning. Drops fell, far apart, and a superficial chill covered everything — a minimum theatrical representation of April Showers, long overdue. An oil-spot rainbow lay in the middle of the street, diffusing but not washing away. A lighting rig poured fake daylight and crisp shadows over a gaily umbrellaed sidewalk table. A block away, ordinary sidewalk tables were pushed together in the shelter of an awning. Tiny round petals floated and fell, looking now like soap bubbles, now like snowflakes. The climate control in the office had lost its bearings, and the indoors grew colder and colder by the hour. By evening, the clouds overhead were no less solid, but had risen or compressed into a definite, textured surface some particular distance away.