What are all those people doing out on the street?

Every once in a while, I’ll have the day off. Sometimes I work from home, run errands on a long lunch, or come in late. Whenever I do, I notice that there are people everywhere. Traffic is jammed, people are speeding up and down the freeways, the mall is busy. Lots of people walking dogs, jogging, riding bikes.
I think, “Why aren’t any of these people at work?” How do you just get to hang out on the street or at the grocery store all day?
Granted, practically everybody in the mall on a weekday is a young woman pushing a stroller. Clearly young stay-at-home moms walk the mall all day. That’s reasonable.
But what about everybody else? How do you get to take your dog to the park at 2pm?
Luckily, I’m not the only one to ever ask this question.
Freelance writer Chris Colin asks the question “Why aren’t you working?”