New York City, June 16, 2016

★★ Morning brought the sound of wet traffic outside and an email announcing the relocation of the preschool picnic indoors. Now and then a fleck of rain still fell in the stifling air outside. The paper had said the clouds would go away, but they stuck there, and right after lunchtime umbrellas came out on Fifth Avenue. The sun almost came through, or came through somewhere else; by rush hour there was a patch watery blue uptown and a grimy orange downtown. At last the clouds relented and let through a splash of golden light and a wash of sunset color, pretty but nowhere near enough.