New York City, August 5, 2014

★★ Another unvaried installment of high-but-not-too-high summer. The sky was a reasonably deep blue. If the morning was short of being hot, the child riding up on the shoulders made up the difference. The river’s surface lay in glossy patches, and no relief was stirring from that direction. The Times Square subway platform raised a full sweat to the surface. Downtown, the tilt of the grid made itself apparent, as sun baked the downtown side of the crosstown streets. Again the cumulus clouds migrated into the midday sky. A big one overlaid the sun, and for a while it was not hot. When the sun did return, though, it was piercing. Breezes, not exactly cool, moved now and then. A film crew maintained the street as its studio with impunity. Thunderstorms, any sort of changes, were not going to be more than a rumor in the newspaper.