Welcome to Colorado-It is a Small World After All

It's a world of laughter
A world of tears
It's a world of hopes
And a world of fears
There's so much that we share
That it's time we're aware
It's a small world after all



One of the things that always amazes me, particularly as one goes through life, is how connected we all really are in this great big world of ours.  I have already blogged about the unbelievable connections I found when we moved to Stowe, with our good friends Steve and Debbie Clark.  

Other Stowe strange events included:

A small dinner party (8 people) where we met the chef who most likely made our first Dinner in Stowe on our Honeymoon 35 years before.

A barmaid who's Father worked closely (he was her boss) with my Older Sister in the Oregon Prison system.

Meeting a women at the Stowe Farmers Market about one week after we moved in who also just moved to Vermont from Washington State who could not believe Barbara "scored" the license plate "Marmota" a moniker who her husband requested a week or two after we moved there.  Now what are the odds of that?

Anyway,  I was again reminded of just how "Small The World is" while I was getting my first Colorado Haircut two days ago. Turns out that the Barber was a man who just finished Barber school in Salt Lake City. He attended this school while we lived in Salt Lake.  In addition he left his job at First Transit to become a Barber.  Now First Transit is same company Barbara's brother-in-law, Vern, now drives a school bus for.  Vern started his working career after leaving the Army, as a......Barber.  Anyway my barber shop banter reminded me that I wanted to share the story of one of our first contacts we met here in Winter Park.  

John "The Spa Doctor" met us about 2 days after moving in. He owns a business that services many of the resort facilities in Winter Park. Our hot tub was a mess and Barbara called this guy having found him on an internet search.  During his introductory visit we started chatting about our past, our kids etc.  Turns out he was an ex-marine like our son, but left the corps several years before our son enlisted.  He served during the first Gulf War.  OK so far not much of a coincidence I know.  However, as we chatted it turns out John was from Berkley Michigan, where Barbara and I lived for 5 years from 1979 to 1984.  Berkeley is a small town of 14,000 just outside of Detroit.   Well it turns out he lived on the same "block" as us one street over and it was very likely that the backyard he played in as a kid backed up to our backyard or at least within a house or two, all while we lived there no less.  I may well have thrown some of his errant baseballs back into his yard.

Now Colorado is a big state and I realize that such coincidences are probably statistically within the "norm" but perhaps my mother and her own Karmic beliefs are not that different than mine (although mine are less "negative").

One of the issues we had to deal with early on is her "aversion" to moving to Colorado.  My older sister you see lived in Colorado with her first husband, and while she reminded me recently that her marriage actually effectively ended in Michigan she tried a reconciliation in Colorado that failed.  Likewise my youngests Son's marriage also ended in Colorado.  My mother felt very strongly that Colorado was not a good place.  It took a lot of conversations from my sister and I to try to dispel her feelings.  Not sure we ever did!

As a rational human being I discounted her thoughts, however sometimes "random" coincidences can be irritating as hell.

I first met our next door neighbor here in Winter Park when (for the first time since moving in) I parked in front of his garage  the Friday before July 4th weekend (I had never seen anybody there since we moved in).  About 10 minutes after parking there he knocked on my door and when I apologized profusely he said "no problem I just need you to move it so I can  pull in".  

A few days later he was packing up to leave and we struck up a conversation.  He indicated this was his family's last visit until winter.   He also indicated he lived about 45 minutes away.

Two weeks later I parked in front of his garage again ( for only the second time since we moved in) to unload some stuff and went in for lunch. Barb said "you shouldn't park here", I related my conversation with him about their not coming back until ski season.  She said "OK Jim whatever you say".

Not about 10 minutes later our doorbell rang....you guessed it his wife came up to get something(?).  Anyway, Barbara met her at the door and yelled (in a somewhat irritated tone)  "Jim you need to move the car, I told you not to park there"! 

Now what are the odds of a shitty coincidence like that??? 

Do any of my readers have similar tales of strange coincidences to share?
Until next time!

Adieu