What Are the Chances?

By Jim Hagarty

I was thinking of my friend Jim today.

I need to send Jim an email, I thought.

Jim lives 20 miles away. We see each other at guitar jams. After the jams and listening to Jim, I have to resist the urge to toss my guitar in the ditch on the way home.

I always enjoy seeing Jim but I never see him outside the guitar jams. Never once ran into him all these years.

But today I needed to email Jim about something.

Didn`t get around to it. But the thought never left my mind.

This afternoon, I hopped in the car to go get a coffee. A too frequent occurrence. But on impulse, on the way there, I decided to drive a little farther and go to the computer store for some cordless phone batteries.

I wandered in. Found my batteries. Went to the checkout.

And ran into Jim.

Tomorrow, I am going think about Julia Roberts all day.

Author: Jim Hagarty

I am a 72-year-old retired journalist, busy recovering from a lifelong career as an unretired journalist. This year marks a half century of my scratching out little fables about life. My interests include genealogy, humour and music. I live in a little blue shack in Canada and spend most of my time trying to stay out of trouble. I am not that good at it. I also spent years teaching journalism. Poor state of journalism today: My fault. I have a family I don't deserve, a dog that adores me, and two cars the junk yard refuses to accept. My prized possessions include my old guitar and a razor my Dad gave me when I was 14 and which I still use when I bother to shave. Oh, and my great-great-grandfather's blackthorn stick he brought from Ireland in the 1850s. I have only one opinion but it is a good one: People take too many showers.