New York City, August 20, 2013

★★ All the cool and dry interludes were gone for certain now; August had assumed the normal character of August. The sky was blue if anyone could look at it, which was easier to do facing uptown than down-. The haze was less golden than yellowish, an unwashed window on everything. Pedestrians weren’t suffering yet, but dishevelment was starting to show. At the end of the work day, the stairs were hot and stuffy at the top, where the outside air came through the windows. Descent was a gradient into the accumulated stray air conditioning — creating a false anticipation, dispelled when the door opened into the renewed stuffiness of the street.