New York City, February 26, 2015

★★ A baby rode in a chest carrier while wearing a full-body electric-blue down suit, the sealed ends of its sleeves and legs dangling far beyond normal baby proportions. The 1 trains were stupidly spaced out, according to the signboard, but the prospect of walking to Columbus Circle in the generically wintry gray was unappealing in the same way as being stuck on a platform, only more intensely so. Only Down on Grand Street, the cloud-dimmed sun brightened and a few snowflakes began falling, in sparse and disorderly manner. Then the shadows and the snowflakes went away. The latter made a desultory but surprising return for a moment in the afternoon, just enough to give the children something to look out for on the way back from the preschool.