There’s a quiet kind of peace in the early morning. With a cup of coffee, I stepped outside to enjoy the stillness. The yard looked familiar—birds in the trees, grass moving gently in the breeze—until something unusual caught my eye.
A bright orange extension cord stretched across the lawn. One end was plugged into my outdoor outlet; the other ran straight into my neighbor’s garage. At first, I assumed there must be a simple explanation.
But the longer I looked, the more uneasy I felt. It wasn’t about the electricity itself—it was the assumption behind it. My neighbor and I were friendly, but we had never discussed sharing utilities.