I was out of sugar, an immediate concern, but not so immediate that I didn’t make one cup of coffee to wake up enough to go get it.

Along the way, I felt hunger, so I stopped by a Subway to get a breakfast sandwich. The line was long, someone had called in an idiotic order – and Trinis love idiotic orders. Everyone wants different things, and the selection of vegetables varied from sandwich to sandwich, across 6 sandwiches. The lady looked up, saw me, and immediately knew my order and got it started.

I suppose I am a bit predictable.

Eating the sandwich, with the coffee kicking in, I made a mental list of other things I should get while at the store while watching a young mother try to be sensible to what looked to be a 4 year old girl, with mixed success.

“Why can’t I have coke?”

“Because you’re not an adult, that’s why.”

Do as I say, not as I do. I smiled, cleared what little mess I had made at the table, and left – but there was a coffee shop nearby, so I decided I needed more coffee. It was on the way, after all. I strode in and happily was at the front of the line, and the barista served the coffee immediately, with her signature, “My darling Steve”. I asked if she was working alone.

“They abandoned me!”

“Well, the customers haven’t and we appreciate you.”

Settling in to finish the coffee, I caught bits of conversation. Once was related to some work drama, where two ladies were complaining about a third lady who was not there – something to do with ordering. Two elderly and one young woman were pointing and chattering at something on a laptop. Inane background noise, while every now and then the two possible college women were projecting their voices at each other from 2 feet apart at odd times, discussing something about a class.

Mundane.

Heading to the store, I found what I needed – the sugar – checked out, and came home. Writing this – the whole reason I’m writing this – is that no one was talking about the lost submersible, the Titan. It was not a part of their lives, it did not matter to them.

As one person put it yesterday, “If some people spent that kind of money to go looking for the Titanic in a ship named Titan… maybe they found it and people will visit their graves too.”

The world is harsh, people are harsh, and nature cannot be fooled.

And I forgot the sugar.