New York City, December 14, 2015

★★ The higher the blinds rose, the less they revealed, as the buildings faded up into fog. The wetness on the air at school dropoff was almost a drizzle. Steam and incinerator smoke wafted sideways, going nowhere, more gray on the gray. The fog released the building tops near at hand but held on to the ones at Columbus Circle. Cigarette smoke stayed around the sidewalk, and lunch cart smells carried to the next block. In the early afternoon that was now midafternoon, there was suddenly color in the drab stone and brick outside. The sky was blue. Even after the light had left the street, there were little bright shreds of cloud moving overhead. By full darkness, though, sheets of brown had moved back overhead and a few drops of drizzle were coming — followed, at dinnertime, by the slosh of full rain hitting the windows. The night air indoors was stifling.