New York City, January 15, 2015

★★★ The sky was clear, the cold correspondingly more piercing. The vapor blew straight sideways from the pipe on the new building, pointing uptown. All the brightness out the window made it tempting to duck out for the first school pickup with a short-sleeved shirt on under the down coat. That was an error. Over by the river, after the sharpness and brilliance inland, the water was a delicate blue, the whole scene blurred by a late-day golden mist.