I am amazed at how some information gets around. Here's an example: Adele told me once that one of her favorite stores is T Lee Customer Designer Jewelry. All by itself, that's a source of anxiety for me, but Adele is, by and large, a responsible consumer of custom designer jewelry if there is such a thing. A couple weeks later, I told her that I discovered a store that had quickly become one of my favorites: Hedberg Masonry and Stucco Supply. Now I have never masoned or stuccoed anything in my life; I just like rocks and rocks is what Hedberg has. Lots of rocks. It was a joke. Adele laughed, but I still like Hedberg Masonry and Stucco Supply. (By the way, the rocks Hedberg sells are frequently larger than the rocks T Lee sells.) That was it. I don't remember ever talking about Hedberg's with anybody again, except my neighbor Matt shortly after he moved in. He's nearly as big a nerd as I am so I thought he would like Hedberg's too and he does.
Spin forward ten years at least, enough time for my chimney to fall apart. I have paid off my mortgage so I can no longer justify not repairing the chimney, which is going to cost me more than a really nice Nikon camera would. (Those are the dimensions with which I measure my life these days: how long it takes for my chimney to fall apart and how many nice Nikon cameras something is going to cost me. I know: I need to get out more.) Gary the brick guy texted me this morning at 6:43 am. That's fine; I respect a man who's already taking care of business at 6:43 am. I called him and we talked about repairing my chimney and replacing my front stoop, which is also falling apart. Yeah, I've been in this house for a while and I have some other things that are falling apart that I am not going to mention on Facebook because that would be widely regarded as TMI. Anyway, in the course of our conversation, he mentioned that his wife knew me and that he had heard that I liked Hedberg Masonry and Stucco Supply and that I ought to get over there to pick out some rock for my new stairs. I did a quick review of what I can remember of women I knew whose husbands I didn't know to verify that I shouldn't have a concern around hiring that husband to do expensive repairs on my house: nothing. Gary seemed friendly enough. But how would he know that I had a soft spot - I know a disorienting metaphor for a rock store - for Hedberg Masonry and Stucco Supply? I didn't ask him how he knew because I will still a little anxious about how he was managing the information that I knew his wife and he didn't know me. My memory isn't what it used to be, but I didn't want to accidently reopen a can of worms, not that a guy whose favorite store is Hedberg Masonry and Stucco Supply and isn't a mason is the kind of guy who would have many cans of worms in his history.
Anyway, I am amazed at how some information gets around, but then I spend most of my time being amazed at stuff.