Cool, weird, surprising and/or cool things you've had happen

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Back when I was in university, I bought several feet of black corduroy to use as a blackout sheet for my dorm window during exams, so that I could sleep in later when I had the opportunity.

So one night I put it up (we had aluminum double sash windows, so that the upper pane could be moved up and down) by having the sheet folded over the top of the upper pane, which I then closed as tightly as possible. Over that I closed my curtains.

Overnight, the upper sash had dropped a few millimeters and the curtains had opened about the same amount. When I woke up the next morning, on the wall facing my window was a very sharp, inverted image of the outside world; I had inadvertently turned my dorm room into a camera obscura. It was really cool at the time.

2

Wow, that is extremely cool.

From the living room window in my current apartment I can see a high-rise building with a row of glass windows running top to bottom. The window faces East, but at sunset you can see the sun going down reflected in the high-rise. Especially nice for sunsets that are interesting on both sides, it’s like seeing two sunsets at once.

3

Before the apartment block was built across the street, this building would be practically invisible on a clear day.

4

A tiny bit of background: I grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, but moved to suburban Chicago, Illinois when I finished college. Being from Green Bay, I’m a fan of the Packers football team; the Packers’ biggest rivals are the Chicago Bears.

Twenty years ago, my wife and I took a driving vacation to the western U.S.; we took my car. One of the places we went was Yellowstone National Park. While we were there, on an early Sunday morning, we were driving around the park, stopping at various points of interest.

We had stopped at an area with some hot springs, parked the car (we were the only ones in the parking lot), and walked over to look at the springs. As we were returning to the car, we saw that an older couple had just parked near our car, and were walking towards us.

We waved to them, and the woman of the couple said, “We were wondering what sort of person would have Illinois license plates, and Packers license-plate frames.” My wife pointed at me: “He’s the one from Wisconsin.”

The woman asked, “Oh? Where in Wisconsin are you from?”

Me: “Green Bay.”

Her: “Oh! We’re from West Bend.”

Me: “I know where West Bend is…my mom is from Port Washington.” (Both towns are just north of Milwaukee, and about 20 miles apart.)

Her: “Port Washington? What was your mom’s maiden name?”

Me: “[Lastname].”

Her: “June [Lastname]?”

Me: “No, my mom is Joan. June is my aunt.”

This random woman, whom I’d encountered 1400 miles away from home, went to high school with my aunt, and knew my mother. :smiley:

5

Back in college, I had a few days off and decided to go visit a friend at his school. Problem was, I’d never been there, didn’t know his address or phone and it was about 300 miles away.

Eh, no big deal! Took off and drove all day, got to the little Cowboy town square, pulled into the first open parking spot I found. It was directly in front of one of the many bars in the square. I walked in, and my friend was sitting on the first barstool closest to the door.

Total search time: About 3 seconds

6

Before I was married, my future wife’s family would occasionally vacation in Florida.
My F.W. had met my family possibly 3 times.
My father would take once a year Herp (Herpatological, amphibian and reptile) viewing/ collecting trip to some southern state.
Both of our families were fron Philly.
One year, my dad was a back seat passenger on a northbound I-95 ride home and glanced out his window somewhere in the Carolinas directly at my F. W., a backseat passenger on her way home also glansing out her window!

History has proven this not to be the sign of pre-destined bliss that it seemed at the time.

7

I’ve mentioned this elsewhen: I found my first cat in the pet food aisle of a grocery store in Helena, Montana. I came around the corner and saw this kitten sitting in the middle of the aisle looking at the cat food. I took her up to Customer Service, who promptly tossed her out; but when I happened to come back a few minutes later, she was in the same place. I took her with me (I think they only charged me a couple bucks at checkout) and she stayed with me until I rehomed her when I had to leave.

8

Not quite as surprising as a couple of the stories in this thread, but IMO not that far off:

In the late 1970’s, I took what turned into a year’s trip driving around the country, on no particular schedule. Then as now I lived in upstate New York.

One day I stopped in a grocery store in Oregon; somewhere around 2500 miles from home. I was standing in line at the checkout when the person behind me in line greeted me by name. It was a friend who lived about three miles down the road from me at home.

I knew he was travelling somewhere out West. He knew I was travelling somewhere out West. The USA West is a pretty big place, and neither of us had known even what state the other was in at the moment; but there we were in the same grocery checkout line.

9

Through DNA testing, I have found family members I did not know I had and met cousins I have never met before. I had my DNA tested about 7 years ago, almost immediately a match came up for a sister I did not know I had. We were born only 2 months apart. Found out our father liked to screw around, especially behind my mother’s back, they were married at the time. We have met and she is glad to have so many brothers and sisters. She was put up for adoption when she was born so she never got to know either of her birth parents. Her birth mother died about 20 years ago, our father had no interest in meeting her.

A bit later another match came up, a cousin. Found out my fathers younger brother also messed around while married. She was raised by her mother in Idaho and knew nothing about her father. She also found she had siblings in Florida and went there to meet them a few years ago. Last year my wife and I went to Boise and met her and her family. As a bonus, one of her new sisters flew up from Florida and I got to meet another cousin for the first time.

After some checking, my wife and I found out the DNA testing places don’t share information with each other so it’s possible to have other relatives out there. My niece confirmed this, she found an uncle she did not know about. This uncle would be my brother I knew nothing about. I took the DNA for this company and sure enough, he is a brother with 99% certainty. Again, like the sister I found, we have the same father. My parents split up for a while in mid 60’s and my father moved to the Washington Coast to work. He met a gal, knocker her up and she had a boy. He was raised by a step father after his mother died when he was 7. I got to meet him and his family last year. My new sister was there to meet him too. We have planned a couple camping trips together this summer.

I think it’s pretty cool to find a meet others that I am related to. Has me wondering how many other people are out there that are related to me. I have also had a couple big lottery wins, which are really cool, but finding new siblings is much cooler.

10

Wonderful. :heart_eyes: Although it does sound a lot like how Seymour came by Audrey II.