[...Well. You've contacted him a couple of times, so he...might as well attempt to do the sociable thing for once and say hello or something.]

This place always seems to lose its collective mind in autumn; it'll settle down once it gets too cold for the terrorists to do anything, because apparently even they have priorities, albeit terrible ones.

As for the holidays, I would ask if you've forgotten Christmas in there somewhere, but since it falls only a week before the new year you still have a point.