Another entry in the "It's a Small World" sweepstakes

Went to the dentist today and was chatting with Vickie, the dental hygienist. She's actually the reason we started going to this particular dentist... years ago, she and I both worked out at the same Curves location at about the same time of day and would get to chatting. We hit it off and when Rackham and I were in need of a new dentist, I decided to go to the office where she worked and we've been going there ever since.

Well, today we were talking about the fact that I don't go by my first name and I mentioned that my mom doesn't go by her first name either... and that my mom's dad *did* go by his first name, but never liked it and wished he could have a good nickname. Then she mentioned that her brother had the name Willard, at which point I was thinking: Hey, didn't I know someone named Willard? Yeah, I did, except he went by the name... at the same time Vickie was saying "But he always went by the name Skip."

Apparently, my eyes bugged out or something, because she stopped fiddling with my teeth so I could talk. Turns out, her brother was our cats' veterinarian. We *loved* that man and were very disappointed when he retired a few years ago. I'd actually been thinking about him a couple months ago and looked him up online to see what he was doing these days (because, honestly, he wasn't the sort of guy to put the "retire" in retirement (the man was a vet who treated cats and exotic animals, was the on-call veterinarian for the University of Washington and for one of the local zoos, had a Saturday morning radio program called Ask The Vet, was in the Army Reserves until not all that long before he retired and also played in a Bluegrass band) and was shocked to find out he'd passed away in February. It was rather cool to talk to her about him and I think she liked the fact that we thought so highly of him.

But still, it can be such a bizarrely small world sometimes.

Crossposted from my Livejournal.