My world is collapsing to a singularity.

Well, light can still escape the gravitational pull of my world, but it does feel like it's getting noticeably smaller.

Three recent data points:

1. At a soccer game the other weekend, the team I coach was playing a team some of whose players I coached last Spring season. The parent of one of those former players of mine greeted me as "Dr. Free-Ride" -- apparently, he had stumbled upon my blog!

   (Younger offspring's immediate reaction: "Oh, so you've seen my drawings!")

2. One of my students this term turns out to be the sister of the parent of my former player.
3. Today, I got an email from Steinn Sigurðsson to inform me that my mother is really cool and helpful. Sure she is, but how would Steinn know that? It turns out that she was the support person who called Steinn back to untangle a tangled NASA computing facility loop.

At this rate, I'll be not at all surprised when my dad tells me he's actually Darth Vader.