My water bill hit exactly 666 gallons last month and I felt weird about it

I was looking at my ABC Water bill online, the one that came in the mail last week, and I just stared at the number. 666 gallons used, right there in black and white. It's not even that high for our house, we have a little patch of grass out back we try to keep alive. But the number itself made me laugh. My husband walked by and I said, 'Hey, look, the devil's watering the lawn.' We spent a good ten minutes trying to figure out what we did that day to make it land on that. Did I run the dishwasher on a holy day? Was it the extra long shower after my hike in the Sandias? It's just one of those silly things that sticks with you. Has anyone else in town gotten a weirdly specific or funny number on a utility bill that made you pause?

2 comments

2 Comments

robinson.holly13d ago

Come on, it's just a number on a bill. People read way too much into random patterns. My bill was 777 gallons once and I didn't think I won the lottery. It's a coincidence, nothing more.

miles5413d ago

I mean, I get what you're saying @robinson.holly, but I read this article about how our brains are wired to find patterns even where there aren't any. It's called apophenia. So when people see a special number on a bill, it feels meaningful even if it's just random. Maybe it's just me, but that 777 on your bill would have made me smile for a second, even if I knew it meant nothing. The article said it's a harmless way our minds try to make sense of things. So yeah, it's a coincidence, but the feeling it gives some people is still real, you know?