New York City, November 13, 2017

★ There was nothing outside that anyone wanted to wake up for. The best that could be said for the rain was that it too minor to do anything about, and the puddles on the way to school were avoidable. The end of it was a negligible improvement: The sky stayed gray and the ground stayed wet. Gingko leaves had given up and fallen without changing color, to be ground to a green paste underfoot. The light never got any better but the breeze sharped and finally did dry things out. A paper plate blew away from the pizza place toward where other plates lay already drowned in a puddle.