I had one of those days today, the kind where you set out on your bicycle with no real plan and find yourself stumbling across the most lovely things in fantastic weather with a spectacular blue sky overhead. Oh, it was divine! After a quick stop to make some copies at work, I rode over to City Park to register for tomorrow’s Tour de Lis and find out about getting a spot to hand out membership applications for the Metro Bicycle Coalition (regular readers: please consider joining to support safe cycling in the Crescent City!). By the time I got over there I was seriously soggy from the heat, so I ducked into the New Orleans Museum of Art for air conditioning and some really great Jacob Lawrence paintings. His 41-piece Toussaint L’Ouverture series? Yes, please. I wandered out, got my bike, and snapped this picture of the fountain in the lake, but mostly this is a picture of that blue sky. It is so brilliant, the summer sky here, and I felt incredibly fortunate to be on this planet today, just to see that sky from my bike. I rode home, made a quick stop at the gym, ate some dinner, and headed back down to the Bywater for a puppet show that made me happy to share this planet with folks who take the time to do things like that and some music, featuring S. on cello. I then headed back Uptown for a quick stop at a birthday party. It was a pool party. I didn’t have my suit, so I just took off my bike shoes and hopped in, skirt and all, feeling not unlike the Lady of Shalott, at least the Anne of Green Gables version. I rode home, all wet, grateful.