After our miserable Snowtober Saturday, our fall days have taken a dramatic turn for the better. Beautiful brisk morning commutes, a pinch of warmth in the air at midday, and refreshingly cool commutes home.

I’m so happy with the way that fall has lingered. Aren’t you?

Today I received the nicest note. It read:

Thank you for writing about the bike. Although this post was up many months earlier, it was just brought to our attention today by Olek herself. In honor of the discovery of your post, we have put the bike out this afternoon. Thank you for taking the time to write about us, and we hope you will post more about Olek and the Renwick Gallery the closer we get to the opening of 40 Under 40: Craft Futures on July 20, 2012

http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/renwick40/

-Debrah Dunner (the “Someone there who takes care of it”)
Curatorial Assistant
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery

Put outside in my honor? How exciting! I had not seen the little bike for some time so I took a moment out of my afternoon to go over and see how it was doing.

Still looking good! I’m looking forward to the 2012 exhibit.

Even more good news awaited me on my ride home, which took me across the National Mall. I discovered that the renovation of the District of Columbia War Memorial, which has made this beautiful memorial inaccessible to the public for over a year, has been completed. That means the fencing that surrounded the memorial and the surrounding grounds is gone! Yippee!

Even though it was dark, I approached the memorial to enjoy a solitary moment there.

There you have it. Delicious fall weather, little yarn-bombed bicycles, and the reopening of the D.C. War Memorial to the public. A little bit of lovely in Washington, D.C.