New York City, March 11, 2015

★★★★ Thin clouds and haze muffled the morning light. The atmosphere was cool like sweaty clothes after an otherwise refreshing nap. The Citi Bike racks were suddenly near empty. At the thought of canvas sneakers, that very model of canvas sneakers appeared through a shop window. A delivery cyclist cruised slowly around a corner, listening to a mechanical voice reciting directions as he went. The retreating snowbanks had revealed dog turds, a champagne cork, a bare rib bone. The golden Puck over the entrance of the Puck Building was dusty. A sax-and-drum combo competed with trees full of wildly twittering sparrows for sonic dominion over the mouth of the Columbus Circle station. Slush was still hanging on along the edge of Dante Square. Some of it was even whitish.