As I sat in the dentist's chair I gazed about the room, noting the photographs on the walls. One was a close-up of a pair of freshly caught rainbow trout, lying in a bed of grass. The rest depicted my new dentist at stream side with fly rod in hand and line in the air. Seeing these as a way to strike up a conversation with him, I asked the dentist where the photos were taken. He mentioned a stream in Montana that was familiar to me. I told him I had explored that area when I was stationed there while in the Air Force. He said he had been in the Air Force at the time the pictures were taken. Further exchanges revealed that we had been there at approximately the same time. Furthermore, we were stationed at the same base and attached to the very same unit. However, our paths probably had never crossed because he had been an officer and I was enlisted. Still, we enjoyed trading stories of our time there and citing local landmarks that we both knew very well.

My visit lasted quite a long time. A later conversation began as a discussion of the weather. Heavy rains had pelted the area for six days, causing flooding in some areas. Noting this, my dentist went on to tell me that his basement was flooded. It might not have been such a problem except that he lived in a duplex apartment and the sump pump that had been installed to prevent such flooding was in the basement of the other unit. Unfortunately, the pump wasn't working and the occupant of the other apartment was out of town, as was the landlord. The dentist went on to say that fortunately, his washer and drier, which might have been damaged by the water, were perched atop of wooden pallets. *A small hint of recognition of something familiar whizzed through my brain * He said that the lucky thing was that virtually all of his belongings were also high and dry, thanks to a former occupant who had built lots of shelves above the water level. *PING* I grinned and said, "Guess what. I'm the guy who built those shelves!"