Finding odd things that make you go "hmmmmm"

[Jocelyn]

We live in the country and have an outdoor cat. One day, he showed up at meal time with a new collar. Since I knew my dh didn't buy it and I didn't buy it, we have no idea where it came from. A week later, the collar was gone.

Oh, dear. I bet someone put it on him, thinking, "There, Snowball's got a collar". Then, next week, realized, "Whoops, that's not Snowball...."

I've done that with strays, put a collar on them with my phone number on it. I figure that if they're working two households, the other household will call and say, 'Why is a collar with this number on it, on OUR cat?' I had a friend do this, and it turned out that the cat belonged to the previous occupant of her new apartment; the cat would escape from his new home and head back. She'd just call the owner and tell him his cat was back, and he'd come get it. Eventually the cat settled in and accepted his new home.

[White Dragon]

Today I found a spoon in the freezer.

I asked DD#1. She said "Maybe somebody wanted something cold? I dunno."

I asked DD#2. She said "What's a spoon doing in the freezer?"



Just odd . . . hmmmm.

I can totally see this...

"Hmmm... I'm in the mood for ice cream" grab spoon, head to freezer to ponder options

"Aha! That one!" reach in to dig out container, realize spoon is in the way. Put spoon down, grab container, re-arrange freezer...forget spoon.

Bonus point for spending the next two minutes looking around the kitchen going "Where's that spoon? I could swear it was just here!"

[CrazyDaffodilLady]

This one had a resolution, but it definitely made me go "hmmmm".

While vacuuming, I found $300 under a sofa cushion. (I live alone.)  It couldn't have been there more than a couple of weeks.  Finding the money was so odd that I mentioned it to my very weird brother, who said he put it there.  No explanation.

Brother does so many weird things that I don't bother to ask for sane explanations any more.

[Dr. F.]

My car registration appeared, I mean APPEARED, on top of my list of things to pack for a recent trip. I had already paid the fee to get a replacement, after SCOURING this house for MONTHS.

How did it appear, and on TOP of what I was working with?

[White Dragon]

Driving home a coupe of weeks ago, I passed a group of teens who seemed to be on their way to the Canada Day fireworks.

What made me go 'hmmmm'- or more accurately  was that each of them was wearing....

,....an ice-cream pail on their head.

[Thipu1]

In any neighborhood it isn't unusual to see people in business attire talking on the phone. 

A few years ago I was on my way to work and saw a man in full power suit kit striding toward the subway and talking into what was obviously a banana. 

University psyche assignments and art student projects aren't unusual here but a banana?   

[ladyknight1]

Love it! My son loved to talk to bananas when he was a toddler. 

[IMissItaly]

I came home one day to find that someone had reinforced the gate in my backyard fence. It was a poorly constructed gate, with no cross braces. Now, all of a sudden they were there! I asked the last person who had mowed my yard for me and he said he hadn't done it - I believed him because I know he didn't have access to the tools required for the job.

I have no friends who would have done it. I'd never even complained about the shoddy gate.

This happened over a year ago and I still have no clue. But I am thankful to whomever did it! 

[cwm]

Okay, so at work I have access to a shared inbox. We get referrals from various companies. This one was kind of weird.

One of our client companies, I'll call them Public Employees Association, is located in a Certain State. We get referrals from them all the time, not a big deal. They come in a certain way and it's fairly standard.

Today we got one in from CertainState Public Employees Association, which is actually a completely different organization. The person submitting the referral was referring herself, and this company has NEVER done business with our company, so one would think she would know the proper place to send referrals, and it would not be to us. We don't have a contract with this company, and the person in charge of assigning all these leads out has never heard of them. Neither has the person whose job it is to keep track of all of our associated client companies. We haven't even had any dealings with this company.

It takes deliberate forethought to submit a referral to our company. You have to know exactly where on the web to go and how to do it. It's not like it could have been an accident, either. Our company has a fairly unique name, there's really no mistaking it for something else.

Just...weird.

[Elisabunny]

Many moons ago, my little library circle went on a girls getaway vacation to a little Pennsylvania resort.  One member of the group had a birthday that weekend and we were toasting her day when, inexplicably, the waitstaff appeared with a small birthday cake and they sang the traditional anthem.

The mystery?  *I* didn't order a birthday cake for Friend.  Neither of the others ordered the cake and Friend doesn't really LIKE cake so she didn't order it for herself.  Her husband knows she is not a cake fancier, her sisters did not know where she was going and since it was a different one of us who made reservations, the staff would not know her birthday was coming up.

To this day we have no idea where that cake came from.

Similarly -

We used to go on holiday to caravan parks when I was young. One year, my mum picked one that had a pretty good kid's programme with a mascot called something like Barney Bear. My birthday tends to fall in the holidays, and so it was this year. On my birthday, a lady from the kid's programme comes over to the caravan, with a birthday card for me and a plushie Barney Bear. To this day, my mum swears she didn't tell anyone at the park it was my birthday, my dad says it wasn't him, afaik it wasn't my grandparents... it remains a total mystery how anyone knew it was my birthday that day. Just weird. I think I still have the bear somewhere though

Did your parents have to register you for the programme?  Maybe they had to put down your birthdate.

[Clarissa]

I was in the local carnival years ago. I have no pictures of this and nor has my mum. About 3 months ago, I received a envelope through the post. It was handwritten with a local postmark. It contained 4 pictures of me in the carnival with no note. I posted on Facebook, and asked my relatives. No idea who sent it. Strange.

[Shoo]

I was in the local carnival years ago. I have no pictures of this and nor has my mum. About 3 months ago, I received a envelope through the post. It was handwritten with a local postmark. It contained 4 pictures of me in the carnival with no note. I posted on Facebook, and asked my relatives. No idea who sent it. Strange.

In the carnival, as in performing in it?  Or *at* the carnival, as in attending it?  The first one, I can see someone taking pictures and then forgetting, then sending them to you later.  The second one would just be creepy.  Kinda weird they were sent anonymously.

[EMuir]

I have a microwave and a K-Cup machine in my cubicle. 

One morning I came to work and found an unopened package of hot chocolate in the microwave, and a disposable coffee cup on my desk, empty, but with dried remnants of black coffee in the bottom.

I never drink black coffee, and the hot chocolate thing just baffled me.

I emailed the head caretaker for the building and asked them to ask the janitors to supervise their children more closely.  They got back to me and said their janitors aren't allowed to bring children with them when working, and the current janitor said she hadn't.

Still, two weeks later I saw them training a new janitor for our floor.

I guess the mystery was solved, but it was frustrating for a while there.

[Dawse]

Many moons ago, my little library circle went on a girls getaway vacation to a little Pennsylvania resort.  One member of the group had a birthday that weekend and we were toasting her day when, inexplicably, the waitstaff appeared with a small birthday cake and they sang the traditional anthem.

The mystery?  *I* didn't order a birthday cake for Friend.  Neither of the others ordered the cake and Friend doesn't really LIKE cake so she didn't order it for herself.  Her husband knows she is not a cake fancier, her sisters did not know where she was going and since it was a different one of us who made reservations, the staff would not know her birthday was coming up.

To this day we have no idea where that cake came from.

Similarly -

We used to go on holiday to caravan parks when I was young. One year, my mum picked one that had a pretty good kid's programme with a mascot called something like Barney Bear. My birthday tends to fall in the holidays, and so it was this year. On my birthday, a lady from the kid's programme comes over to the caravan, with a birthday card for me and a plushie Barney Bear. To this day, my mum swears she didn't tell anyone at the park it was my birthday, my dad says it wasn't him, afaik it wasn't my grandparents... it remains a total mystery how anyone knew it was my birthday that day. Just weird. I think I still have the bear somewhere though

Did your parents have to register you for the programme?  Maybe they had to put down your birthdate.

Possibly, although as far as I can recall it wasn't really the kind of programme you registered for and signed up for activities way in advance, I think you just had a look at the schedule for when you were there and picked the ones you wanted to do. (I really could be wrong though, I was about nine.)

That wouldn't explain how baffled my mum was though. She's normally pretty good at remembering that sort of stuff and swears blind she doesn't know how they knew it was my birthday.

[Clarissa]

I was in the local carnival years ago. I have no pictures of this and nor has my mum. About 3 months ago, I received a envelope through the post. It was handwritten with a local postmark. It contained 4 pictures of me in the carnival with no note. I posted on Facebook, and asked my relatives. No idea who sent it. Strange.

In the carnival, as in performing in it?  Or *at* the carnival, as in attending it?  The first one, I can see someone taking pictures and then forgetting, then sending them to you later.  The second one would just be creepy.  Kinda weird they were sent anonymously.