Am I alone in the universe when it comes to odd happenstance?

When something unusual happens to you, do you ever wonder if anyone else has had the same experience?

I'll tell you about a few things that I have experienced and maybe you can relate.

I stop by the store on the way home to pick up some bread, bananas and fake beer.

It's busy, but not too busy, and I push my cart towards the middle of the store.

My usual habit is one where I try to maximize my efficiency and get in and out of the store, so I park the cart in the least busy places I can find and then go free-range for the goods I'm after.

In most cases, I park at places like the frozen soy breakfast patties, or the enormous wine display that bulges into the aisles.

I figure that nobody really eats those soy patties and that the wine display is so big that it's easy for someone to get to a bottle without bothering my cart.

Now here's the strange part: Every time I come back to my cart with an arm full, someone is leaning over it to get to what they want.

I have to apologize, move the cart away and then marvel at how, in the four seconds I was gone ranging, that someone could zero in on that location and find my cart in the way. Does that ever happen to you?

I'll be driving down the road and come to a four way stop. At the intersection, another car comes to a stop at the same time. We peer at each other through our windshields, and without a nod or a wave from either party, we both enter the intersection and nearly collide as we do the herky-jerky, lurching around each other.

It's then that I recall seeing a big dent on my new friends car, and it's located exactly where he and I would have made impact, a phenomenon I have dubbed a "dentifestation." Has that ever happened to you?

I go to the snack machine to buy a bag of pretzels. I put my five dollars in (yes, it seems like the price has gone up a little) and push the buttons on the over-complicated keypunch.

D6, and the little spring holding the bag in place winds and whirs and then...nothing. The pretzels hang there in mid air, tantalizing me by not falling into the lower bin.

I consider heaving my shoulder into the big box, but they're so heavily made I'd just bruise my shoulder, plus, the guy at the nearby counter is already eyeing me because he saw what happened.

Also, they have made the little door at the bottom filch-proof and unless you're as limber as elasto-man, you'll never get your arm though to reach up and grab the prize.

So, I just write off the five-spot and go sit down. A few minutes later, somebody walks by with TWO bags of pretzels and an overly satisfied look on their face. Has THAT ever happened to you?

Sitting at my desk last night I was online at the computer looking for Christmas presents when my little dog Smiley wandered into the office, her little curly tail wagging high in the air.

She brushed up against my leg and I cooed at her absently, still reading the text on the screen. With my free hand, I reached down and felt her wet nose and fuzzy head and petted her a bit.

Then I turned slighty and noticed: her head was facing away from me, while I thought I was petting her nose. YIPES!

It was her rear end I was petting and I whooped and she ran and I ran and we both met at the laundry room sink.

Hot water and soap, I grumped at her though it was my goofy mistake and the dog seemed to be smirking. Has that ever happened to you?

No milkbones for her this Christmas. Maybe a pair of underpants.