Another Test

I should say, as a follow-up to yesterday, that there is something I have been given recently, which does not belong to me, and which I took gladly.

Following a months-long battle with technology to have a TV that shows me the channels that I want to see, I finally had to have my cable company come and install a cable card in my Tivo. The installation process was a debacle, thanks to the unsurprising incompetence and rudeness of the service technician.

However, following the Very Difficult Installation, which involved nothing more than inserting a cable card into the slot on the back of the Tivo, we found that we now get around 15 cable channels which are not included in the basic cable lineup for which we pay. These channels include favorites like Nickelodeon and TLC.

(iCarly and 19 Kids and Counting are now a part of my life again, which is amazing. Not included in this line-up is HGTV, which does make me wistful. I still really, really miss HGTV, but I don’t miss it $40 more a month worth.)

Those cable channels do not belong to me, but I am taking them anyway. I do not feel bad about it. In fact, if the cable company realizes their mistake and takes the channels away, I am going to be very sad.

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Pass/Fail

Yesterday, while walking my dog, I came across $6 lying in the middle of the sidewalk.

Today, I was having A Day, and even though I rarely do such a thing, I went downstairs to the vending machines in my office to get a Cherry Coke Zero and a Kit Kat. When I pulled the Kit Kat out of the vending machine, I saw a Snickers bar lying in the vending machine well.

In both cases, I left the things where they were. I reasoned that they didn’t belong to me, and that I shouldn’t take them. I actually picked up the Snickers bar, then put it back where it was.

It feels like the universe is testing me. But I’m not sure what it’s testing. Or if I am passing the test.

(Honestly, though, a Snickers is not my favorite candy bar. It may have turned out differently if it were an Almond Joy. Or a cookie.)

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