Strange Coincidences

I wanted to mention two strange coincidences that happened to me this morning...

Kevin and both got up early today to take my truck into the shop for a "check-up."  Even though the shop did not open until 8 am, we had to leave the truck there before 7 am so Kevin could get to work on time.  We wrote all our contact information on an envelope the shop provided, then dropped the keys in the envelope and put the envelope in a mail slot.  Kevin dropped me off at home and asked me to call the shop around 9 am to make sure that they got the keys.  I took a short nap and woke up at almost precisely 9 am.  I picked up the phone to call the shop but strangely there was no dial tone.  I hung it up and tried again but there was still no dial tone!  However, while I was listening for the dial tone the second time I realized that I was not hearing "dead air" - I was hearing scuffling noises on the line!  I started to freak out, thinking that someone was tapping my line or something.  I was trying to be quiet and listen to see if I could figure out what was happening when I heard Kevin's voice say "Hello?"  It turns out that he had called me just as I picked up the phone to call the car shop.  The phone never even rang!  I can only think of one other time in my life when that has happened - it was when I was in elementary school and I picked up the phone to call a friend just as she called me.  I'm sure it probably happens to people all the time but I still find it pretty astonishing!

The second coincidence was even more odd - Kevin was calling because the auto repair guy had been calling him at his office all morning, even though my name was on the envelope and the only numbers we provided were our home phone and my cell phone!  We were scratching our heads trying to figure out how they knew to call Kevin and how they figured out where he worked.  When I hung up with Kevin, I called the repair guy back to make sure he was going to change our windshield wipers.  While we were on the phone I asked him how he knew to call Kevin and where he got his work number.  It turns out that they still had records for my truck in their computer system from when I had it checked out the last time I lived here in 2004.  I wouldn't have thought that they could have made the connection since I now have new license plates and a new last name, but they use the VIN number to track vehicles so they were able to look me up!  The repair guy said that he hadn't even looked at the numbers on the envelope we gave them - he had just called the number in their system...which was my old work number.  And since Kevin now works at the same place, somehow the call managed to get transferred to him!  Funny, huh?