New York City, January 13, 2015

★★★ Vapor rose from a storm grate and bathed the wheel well of a hybrid parked outside the Apple Store. White plumes topped the buildings off beyond Columbus Circle and billowed from the vent holes in a steel plate on the sidewalk by Grand Street. The sun was abundant, the sky sharp blue. Pale gold buds or seedpods glowed in high branches. The impulse to detour for Hong Kong tea and a tub of warm dou hua was the right one, even if the cold bit the fingertips holding the bags. The brightness seemed welcoming enough to plan another trip out, to buy gum, yet somehow night fell before that trip got made. A woman made her way along Prince Street in the dark with huge sacks of recyclables dangling from a yoke on her shoulders. The final walk from 59th Street, in lieu of the late and surely crowded 1, went briskly and bearably, even with a detour from the hypotenuse to discern that this batch of protesters at Lincoln Center consisted of environmentalist protesters.