Yes, now, this is what I call a holiday. No picnics, no ballgames (except on TV), no fireworks (I can hear them but not see them). Just a quiet day enjoying my freedom at home. Thanks to the Founding Fathers for setting this all up, and thanks to the Greatest Generation for keeping it going, and thanks to the Bush Administration for being just barely too incompetent to ruin it all.

Here’s how my holiday went: I slept as late as I wanted and got up in time to watch the space shuttle not blow up (and later heard that the North Korean missiles did blow up, making kind of a cool symmetry to lead off the evening news, which I did not watch). I spent the day alternately reading and puttering around the house, but doing no “work” work.

The best part is that at no time today did I have to do two things at once. It’s not that I can’t do two things at once, or that I don’t like to challenge myself, but a day like this, a straight line from one task to the next with no waves or bumps is like a mini-vacation. Tomorrow it will be back to the usual chaos, full of noise and demands piling on top of each other. For one day, at least, I’m happy to escape from all that.

The downside is that I’ll now have to cram two days’ worth of work into tomorrow. And since I still don’t have this week’s time cards, and the payroll has to be mailed on Wednesday, I’ll probably have to make two trips to the post office. I’ll try not to feel guilty about doing nothing today, but come the end of July, when I’m up against all those deadlines, I might regret it. But at least I’ll have the beautiful memory of my holiday. I’m sure that will be a comfort then.