New York City, September 20, 2012

★ Dim, sloppy pastiche. Clouds were thick and thickening on a chilly walk to the library. In the time it took to pay off an overdue book, the sun came on bright and strong, till the jacket that had been a necessity felt like an error. A subway ride downtown led into more tempered sunlight and a springlike humidity. Off in the middle distance over Lower Manhattan, yet another separate microclimate appeared to be piling up layers of gray. It was the gray and darkness that would come closest to prevailing — though that would break half-apart to spill out a bit of sunset. Up at the schoolyard, I was told, there had even been fleeting raindrops. The kindergartener was outraged. The morning Times hadn’t mentioned anything about rain in the weather report. But really, how could it have? This barely qualified as weather at all.