Today I could have had a free tank of gas. I was in a bad mood because my daughter had an object d'art that she made and wanted it delivered over forty miles from home. She asked me to drive it there because she knows I'm a writer and keep my own schedule, which means I have no schedule. It is now 9:30 p.m. and I just now decided to write this piece. It's kind of nice to be my own boss and work when I please. But this morning the Ryder Cup had started and I wanted to watch the golf matches. I didn't want to drive 45 miles to drop off a fancy painted ginger jar my daughter made, but there I was, and saw that I needed gas before hitting the road. I pulled up to the pump and swiped my card, but for some reason, the pump already said, "Lift nozzle and select grade." Someone else had pulled up to the pump, tried to pay, and then pulled away for whatever reason in spite of the pump being activated and ready to fill my car with gas. I tried hanging up the pump to cancel the sale, but the pump remained active, as if Satan himself was tempting me to help myself to free gas. The pump was primed and ready to give me a free tank of gas. All I had to do was remove the nozzle, stick it into the gas tank, and pull the lever. It wouldn't be like I was actually stealing from someone, would it? Yeah, it was exactly like I would be stealing because I would have been stealing. Someone else had tried to pay for gas and then went to another pump without realizing they had left the previous pump active. The gas I would have pumped would have been charged to someone else's … [Read more...]