Strange start to the day today. Got up around 4:30 and headed up to where the coffee is. This is often my favourite part of the day, as I’m usually the only one up here (other than staff) and it’s still dark. Then the sun comes up over the water and it’s just glorious (see the banner image above). I’ll catch up on email, Facebook, do the crossword, and maybe watch a few YouTube videos.

Today, however, shortly the sun rose, a couple who’ve likely been married longer than I’ve been alive, came in and in a room with seating for 500 or more people, took the table right behind my chair. The man got up to get some coffee, saw my “Canadian” shirt, and said, “do you keep up with the news?” I was a little shocked, but managed to say, “not when I’m on vacation, no.”
He didn’t skip a beat. “I just read that Quebec is trying to ban prayer in public. Seems that the Muslims are praying outside the mosques.”

What the actual… I took a deep breath and said, “well, I don’t have enough information to form a solid opinion, but I would likely have mixed feelings about that. But hey, as long as we don’t have a sexual predator running the country, I suppose it’s all going to be OK.”

That pretty much shut them down from talking to me anymore, but as they were sitting directly behind me, I heard their non-stop patter about which of their devices are showing the correct time, why they mightn’t have changed automagically, whether or not the sticky buns were up on the buffet yet, how many days they can go before they’ll have to have clean underwear, how many times she had to push the button to get the toilet to flush, whether or not the eggs might be cold again today, whether or not they’ve missed the tai chi class (because of the time change last night), which of the fruits offered on the buffet would have the most fibre, the importance of colon health (especially at our age), whether that spot in the water was a bunch of seaweed or a whale, and on and on and on and on.

In a move that should surprise no-one, I popped in my headphones, put Pete and Bas on shuffle, and tried to block it out. But hey, at least the sunrise was worth it!