New York City, September 12, 2012

★★★★ Warmth to be semi-reckoned with. The thick hoodie, prudent on the way out for the school dropoff run, was bothersome by the end of a detour to the market on the way back. Once the day was established, though, people clinging to shorts and t-shirts mingled with the ones moving on to lightweight jackets. Apparently it felt OK if you wore a witchy-hipster black-gauze overskirt, too. Bricks downtown shared their color with the world around them. In the schoolyard, the evening air was calm around the crazed Brownian motion of picnicking children. Tiny, mysterious droplets fell from the deepening blue above. Parents paused and peered upward, seeing nothing. They glanced around. By the far edge of scene, two children with soaker waterguns were wending through the crowd. Were they responsible? But the little hydro-soldiers moved on, and the phantom drizzle kept falling.