Whenever a former or current president dies, the federal government shuts down. Completely. Congress quickly votes, and then unanimously takes the day off, and then, as long as they're at it, gives the rest of the federal workers the day off too.

The problem is that everyone else in the world continues as usual. While your local senator may feel fine taking eight hours off to stare out the window and sniff his index finger, the rest of us have work to do. Including mail processing clerks, federal employees may they be. Even though mail is not collected, people still mail things, and so we must process it. While we don't necessarily get Rememberance Day off, we do get *a* day off to mourn the president.

At our discretion.

Today, I chose to take the day off to mourn the passing of our 38th president, Gerald Ford. As you might expect, my day was fricken awesome.

The day started normally enough. Coffee and web-surfing. Zoning out in front of screens. A quick shower, delivering an much-overdue rent payment, and then wandering off to find breakfast at around 2pm. Yes, the life of leisure. I love this city.

(Have I mentioned that the Lake Superior Coffee House serves breakfast ALL DAY LONG, for like, four bucks? And you can totally watch Louis Jenkins talk with some ponytailed dude while you eat it? Anyway...)

After breakfast, life is all about reading and otherwise screwing around in the park. While one could choose any park, we chose Bayfront Park, because that was supposed to be the place where Wilco was going to play. Before Nels Cline came down with chickenpox. Don't even get me started on this.

I take photos, including this one, which I made into a banner for Perfect Duluth Day.

More coffee. And then sushi on my deck from Zen House, which was kind of hit-or-miss. Some of the rolls were fantastic, but some ... uh ... not so much.

Later in the evening, Superior Wisconsin and Punk Rock called. And you know what? Duluth is so much cooler than Wilco. [video]

God bless you, Gerald Ford. You were a beautiful man.