New York City, September 15, 2015

★★★★★ The light in the street was a stage-lighting treatment of daytime, so that a Mercedes, not a particularly well-kept one, gleamed down to its hubcaps. The temperature was a tiny increment higher than ideal for long sleeves; there was a little eyestrain at the crosswalks. This was summer again, remnants tidily packaged. Loose open-backed dark shirts were falling off tanned shoulderblades while they still could. The air conditioning had gone fully insane — it took layers and a raised hood to fight it off. Eventually it was time to take off the layers and go out, to stand on the far, sunny side of Fifth Avenue, by the gutter full of dry trash and sediment, absorbing the gentle blessing of the heat.