New York City, November 21, 2017

★★★★ The river was inky and almost nonreflective, but so much sun shone on a building on the far shore that it cast a butter-colored gleam on the dull water regardless. Brilliant paper-white gulls rose and dipped in the distance against the gray. One plane tree by the schoolyard was drenched with gold in the otherwise color-parched autumn. In late morning, the clouds, stretching up in winglets, took on a ruddy sundown tinge. After that, the light became wholesome again. It was time again to worry about the ambient cold getting into the phone and sapping the battery. The night was so clear and it fell so early that, on the walk home with chicken for dinner, all three points of Summer Triangle could be found in the sky.