New York City, January 22, 2014

★★★★ The changeover from storm to frigid clarity was complete, overnight. Workers on the half-built top of the apartment building were shoveling show onto the next slab below, where it landed in sifted piles, the tallest heap rising higher than a person’s head. Ice floated in the Hudson along the shore, while midstream was clear and blue-black. The whole inventory of long underwear and thick socks was laundered from the last freeze and ready. Sixty-Seventh Street was still solid white, and then a garbage truck with a plow rounded the corner. On Broadway, sun was blinding on the slushy sidewalk. Downtown, though, even after a full day of foot traffic, the snow still creaked drily when treaded on.