Yesterday was kind of a non-event.

I took the day off from work.  Stayed home with Terri.  We slept in late and spent most of the day playing video games.  It was certainly a nice day.

Then we went out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, had a very good meal.

Later, we watched a couple hours of the Ghost Hunters live Halloween investigation.

But that’s it.  Not just for yesterday, but for the whole holiday.  We didn’t go on any hay rides this year…  Didn’t carve any pumpkins…  Didn’t go to any haunted houses…  Didn’t do the zombie walk this year…  Didn’t dress up or go out pretty much anywhere…

And that’s very unusual.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  Sure, I can find redeeming qualities in pretty much all of them…  I’ll take any excuse to spend time with my family, exchange gifts, dress goofy, gather ’round and tell stories or sing or whatever.  It almost doesn’t matter what the holiday is actually for.

But Halloween has always had a special place in my heart.  I love the horror genre.  I love seeing all the older horror movies on TV, and new horror movies in the theater.  I like seeing stores decorated with spiders and skeletons and creepy stuff.  I like seeing normal things like cupcakes and candies get turned into spiders and monsters.  I like seeing people dressed up, parading around as their favorite hero or villain or whatever.  The whole holiday is a ton of fun.  I mean – there’s a reason we picked October 31st as our wedding day.

But this year it just didn’t happen.

I’ve been insanely busy at work.  Putting in lots of long days, poking my head into the office on the weekend, getting calls even when I’m not carrying the pager, mulling work-related things over while I’m at home and trying to relax…

Terri has been busy at school.  And worrying about our kids.  And going through some stressful stuff with her counselor.  And worrying about me.  And feeling bummed about the lack of family this year.

The end result of all this, is that neither one of us was in any mood to deal with other human beings this year.

In the abstract, theoretical sense, going on a zombie walk (or going to a haunted house, or a party, or whatever) sounds like fun.  But in the real, practical sense, it would mean dealing with a bunch of other human beings for a couple hours.  And that was simply more than either of us could take.

We both just really wanted to spend some quiet time at home with each-other.

And that’s exactly what we did.

And it was a very enjoyable day.

But it feels like we forgot something…

Today is Columbus Day.  I don’t normally note the holiday…  Or, even, really think of it as a holiday.  Banks and government offices might close.  Maybe you get a day off from school.  But that’s generally the extent of it.

I certainly wouldn’t expect to have the day off from work.

Nor would I expect many of my co-workers to take the day off.

But now I’m here at work, and I’m feeling kind of like an idiot for showing up.

The parking lot was only about half-full this morning.  Lots of empty spaces.  I had hardly any email this morning – usually there’s at least a dozen messages waiting for me.  I had a couple missed calls, a couple voicemails, but they were all from the weekend.  Nothing new this morning yet.  Several people have voiced surprise at seeing me here today.  And it looks like just about everyone in administration is out today.

I guess I should have taken the opportunity for a three-day weekend.  Would have been very nice.

Labor Day.  Which means I’m home from work.  Always seems kind of odd…  Sitting at home on a Monday morning, when I should be at work.  Feels nice to have an extra day off, but it feels like there’s something slightly wrong with the world.

Just got back from seeing the local display of fireworks.

We tried to avoid some of the crowds by parking a mile or so away.  Looked like a good spot – a secluded chunk of lakefront.  I figured we’d have a good view, and it’d be less crowded than down at the monument.  We showed up over an hour early so we could get a decent spot.  And then we had some time to kill…

The fireworks eventually started, and it turned out that we had a pretty bad spot.  I thought the fireworks would be going off more-or-less in front of us…  But it turns out that the monument, and the fireworks, were behind us.  And behind some trees.  So we didn’t get a very good view.

About half the fireworks were low enough that it was just a vague light in the sky, which kind of reminded me of the numerous sci-fi movies I’ve seen.  But the ones that detonated higher in the air were pretty.  Especially the sparkly ones.

I had a pretty good time…  But it seems to me that the fireworks display was pretty short.  Seemed like just 15-20 minutes.  Seems like they used to be longer.  Or maybe that’s just me remembering things wrong.

It was actually almost more fun to watch the people around us, than to watch the fireworks themselves.

One guy acted like he was triangulating a missile launch or something…  Made a big show of carefully positioning himself.  But he obviously had no idea what he was doing because he wound up pointed in the wrong direction just like the rest of us.

Then there was the lady who complained very loudly about how she couldn’t see anything and she was going home – while beautiful fireworks burst in the air above us.

There was a lull about halfway through…  The fireworks stopped for a minute or so…  And one family decided they must be over.  They started packing up, and were so intent on getting things stuffed into their car that they didn’t notice when the fireworks resumed.

Another family that arrived roughly the same time we did brought an absolute crapton of cold beverages.  Big cooler.  And they kept drinking.  It was warm out…  But we don’t live in the middle of the Sahara.  You do not need to consume a chilled drink every 15 minutes to remain hydrated.

Then there was a steady stream of people leaving all evening.  Some left before the fireworks, some left during…  But there was a steady stream of cars starting up and driving away.  Wasn’t so bad before the fireworks, and maybe they knew better than the rest of us…  But once the fireworks started, those headlights were pretty damn disruptive.  Hard to enjoy the show when you’ve been blinded by somebody’s highbeams.

Ultimately, Terri and I came to the same conclusion – if you’re going to do it, do it right.  Next year we’re going to have to just deal with the crowds.  Go early, leave the car a few blocks away, and do the whole 4th of July thing with all the other people for the afternoon.  Because the 15-20 minutes of vaguely glowing skies punctuated by actual fireworks really wasn’t worth the multiple hours it took us to get down there, park, and then get back out of there.

Independence Day.

More importantly, a day off from work without the pager.  Woot!