I’ve been buying my fair share of lottery tickets lately, which usually isn’t a good thing as sometimes it correlates with how good a week I’ve been having, as in I buy more when I’m feeling less happy with my current state of being.
So that’s not usually a good thing but as it turns out I’ve been on a bit of a roll lately which keeps it interesting, not to mention it does less damage to the wallet.
I actually bought a Set for Life scratch ticket the other day, which is usually a sign that it’s been a less than stellar week as I know the odds aren’t good of actually being ‘Set for Life.’ In fact you can look up the odds on the back of the ticket, but phrases like a shot in the dark or being struck by lightning will suffice in this circumstance.
However, as they say, if you don’t buy a ticket……and this game is good for keeping you in the game as there seems to be a lot of free tickets and small monetary victories involved, and that’s been my experience lately.
It started with a free ticket, and then a five-buck win and even a $15 victory, which of course have all been reinvested so that I’ve been on a cash-free roll for a couple weeks with four tickets waiting at home for when I feel the urge to try my luck.
And even on the Lotto Max and 6/49 front my investments have been potting small dividends lately, as in free tickets and small five-buck and $10 winnings that merely save me the effort of reaching for my back pocket to purchase new ones.
Hey, like I said, it keeps me in the game and, better yet, it makes me feel like less of a loser and even a bit of a winner, which is probably what we’re really searching for in this lottery thing (and life, I guess, for that matter as us lovable losers keep trying to humbly find a way to be an actual winner in life, ahem).
And speaking of feeling like a winner and on a bit of a roll, I happened to open the bill from our natural gas supplier the other day and I was somewhat struck by the number under the amount due category: as in $36,849.68.
My heart skipped a beat, I think.
I know it’s been cold lately and my wife’s been complaining a little bit and may have turned up the heat on occasion, without me noticing, but it still seems like an extreme amount for one month’s supply of natural gas for a single household although I should really get those vents cleaned out one day and…..
But then I looked a little closer and noticed the letters ‘CR’ after the $36,849.68 amount and it dawned on me that this is what they owed us, as in a credit for future gas purchases, which, by my quick calculations, should last us for quite awhile, as in a couple decades or so.
Yeehaa, I thought, I am really on a roll here. This is better than a scratch ticket as you’re not expecting anything good to come out of opening a utility bill. And apparently I truly am set for life when it comes to natural gas at least.
Of course this line of thinking lasted a couple nanoseconds or so as even I know if it sounds too good to be true….
So I looked a little closer at the bill and noted that they had registered our usual monthly payment that I made at the bank machine, but also a payment for $36,949.99 that I don’t really remember making and I’m pretty sure I would have if I had actually given them that amount for some strange reason, even though I didn’t owe it to them.
“Maybe you better call them about it, honey,” I wisely said to my better half as it’s in her name (long story, maybe another column) and even though I remember the “bank error in your favour” card from my Monopoly game days, it doesn’t usually work out that way. And, you know, that honesty thing as well…..
So she called and the nice lady and my wife discussed all the possibilities, including us accidently handing over that kind of money somehow (like we have that kind of money to hand over somehow) and the bottom line is they’re checking into it for us.
I’m pretty sure I don’t own $36,849.68 in natural gas credits anymore but if somehow I do and I find some way of parlaying it into a side business I’ll let you know, not that I know how I would get it to you or even if it’s possible, or maybe I’ll just let my wife turn up the heat a little more often, and I won’t even grumble about it.
