Working on the 4th of July

I spent the 4th of July holiday at Google at work, because I wanted to avoid the crowded weekend and get another day off some other time ... it was an eerie experience being alone in a big building normally fully of people and activity, but not an unpleasant one.

I only saw parts of the celebration around me: red-white-and-blued kids getting on the train, the beginnings of a parade in Redwood City (en route to work), and then, on my return to San Francisco, my suburb - The Mission - turned into a warzone of firecrackers, fireworks, billowing smoke and patrolling police everywhere (private fireworks are illegal here, but it doesn't seem to be strictly enforced). I escaped by going to have a meal with friends on Potrero Hill, which is biking hell but has grand views down into central San Francisco - where somewhere among all the fog, the official firework celebration was going up into the air.