New York City, April 26, 2013

★★★★ A few blots of cloud were on the blue morning sky, with light haze beneath. Leaves and blossoms and a red plastic shopping basket glowed in the sun coming from the east. Down across the river in Brooklyn, the humid air was chilly enough in the shade of Court Street that the kindergartener asked for his windbreaker. On Schermerhorn, in the sun at the top of the Transit Museum steps, it was a little stuffy. The light grew dimmer and grimier in the afternoon, and the wind picked up. The toddler rode and dragged his scooter toward Broadway, behind small dogs yapping at each other. Young musicians were drifting the other way down the sidewalk, their bright satin recital gowns rippling in the breeze, clutching a medal or a certificate or a trophy or nothing at all.