Its a Small world

WV Sawmiller · May 30, 2021, 09:34:27 PM

My 3 times repeat customer from 75 miles away wanted me to go look at some logs he bought several months ago so I agreed to meet him today. I needed to go to town to buy some hardware for my Composting toilet project and get some sander belts and such anyway so I just merged the trips. I visited Lowes, WalMart, TSC and finally HF. At HF the man at the register was a customer of mine so I got a special employee discount there.

I met my site visit customer at a local gas station/truck stop and rode with him about 20 more miles to a remote area where the logs were in a big farmer's pasture. When he pulled in the drive I told him "You're not going to believe this but I have sawed here for this guy before." Turns out I sawed his logs nearly 6 years ago. He is 50 miles away from my home. It was good to see him and catch up on some other local customers who were friends of his near by that I had sawed for.

What are the chances two of my customers from 50 miles apart would meet and want me to come saw their logs without either of them knowing I knew and had worked for the other in the past?

ellmoe · May 31, 2021, 07:40:11 AM

Apparently , 100% ! ;D

sealark37 · May 31, 2021, 09:21:32 AM

I have run into folks from my hometown all over the world! You never know who is around the corner.

mike_belben · May 31, 2021, 10:21:33 AM

me and treemuncher live in tennessee about 4 hours apart. coincidentally, we grew up 10 minutes apart in massachusetts.

other day a nice member here on FF from up in northwest mass, an hour from where im from, PMd to offer me something he doesnt need anymore the next time i make a trip up north. we get to chatting and i know his next door neighbor, i did arborist work and built trails right next door years ago. over 1000 miles away from where i am now.

back in marines i met a guy in hawaii from a town away back home and we were at some of the same parties together without ever knowing each other.

it really IS a small world sometimes.

Tom the Sawyer · May 31, 2021, 10:59:22 AM

I got a call from a guy who wanted a couple of logs milled at his home (about a 35 mile drive) and a bunch more at his farm, which was about 20 miles further away. When he gave me the address of his home it sounded familiar and I told him I might have been there before. He told me who he had bought the home from and, sure enough, it was the same location in an upscale subdivision. I explained the cost benefits of moving his home logs to his farm (he had plenty of equipment, and employees), but it ended up being two separate mobile jobs.

I maintain a Google Earth map with a yellow pin for every site visit I have done, which I change to green once the job is completed. Repeat clients have one pin with their name and # of jobs. It is the only house with two green pins.

This shot misses some of the more distant jobs.

mike_belben · May 31, 2021, 11:10:16 AM

that is brilliant tom.

Mooseherder · May 31, 2021, 01:21:49 PM

What is six degrees of separation? - Definition from WhatIs.com

jmouton · May 31, 2021, 07:58:33 PM

i wish i was smart enough to do that tom,,,i am not even computer literate to post pics on FF yet :D :D :D

sawguy21 · May 31, 2021, 08:35:55 PM

I never cease to be amazed at where I run into people. I have met cousins at work, one I knew about one I didn't.

WV Sawmiller · May 31, 2021, 09:40:10 PM

In early 2006, I was working all over Iraq and agreed to a new assignment in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. I told my wife who told our daughter Sharon who is a child life specialist at the Levine Children's Medical Center in Charlotte NC. She told her mom "That is neat. We have a little boy here from Mongolia. His parents are missionaries there and wolves scared the horse he was riding and he was thrown and his foot hung in the stirrup and he got a broken jaw, lost some teeth and nearly died. They medi-vacced him to Seoul Korea and they got him stable then sent him here because we have the specialists he needed and his grandmother lives near here. The nurses and staff love him. He is the neatest kid. He loves the hot showers and will stay in there all day if we'd let him. (In Mongolia he'd have to heat a pan of water and bathe quickly in his ger - the Mongolian round traditional tent - before the water froze.) He also loves the assortment of fast foods like Pizza, Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, etc. (A big factor was he was getting better and lots of their child patients are terminal.)

In March I went to Mongolia and my wife came in July and we took a 2.5 week private tour throughout central and northern Mongolia. On July 11, 2006 we were at a campground at Lake Hovskul along the Russian border and observed and participated in the Naadam (National Day) festival there. Just before sunset we saw 2 little Caucasian boys wearing red Ohio State sweat shirts so I went over and asked them which part of Ohio they were from as I was in the next state south of them. They said they did not know. My wife asked them where they went to school thinking that might help. The older boy said "Oh, we're home schooled. We are missionaries kids." Becky looked closer and spotted a scar on his lip and asked the boy "Did you get hurt in a horse riding accident in January?" He looked puzzled but said "Yes." I asked "Did you go to Korea then Charlotte for treatment?" He replied "Yeah but how did you know that?" I told him "Because our daughter treated you". I told him Sharon was our daughter and he remembered her then he took us over to his mom and introduced us. We got a picture with him and the next time we were in Moron or a town with internet we sent it to Sharon and said "Here's Jonas. We found him" She was amazed we'd find him in a remote village in norther Mongolia when she did not know where he was living and had never told us his name.

Several years later my wife was conducting a Photography workshop through our local Hobby Lobby. A family signed their 18 y/o daughter to attend. When we met them we found the dad was a printer going to Mongolia to print the Bible in the Mongolia language. We told them this story and found the Kofers in Mongolia were their sponsor. They wanted the daughter to learn photography to record their mission work. When we mentioned the story about Jonas the girl said "Oh my God. He's my boyfriend. He's 19 now and going to college in California."

Talk about a small world!