Thursday, August 2, 2012

Expiration Dates

I've been going thru my pantry and medicine cabinet looking at the things to see if they are expired.

Things I didn't expect to have expiration dates do have them. Things like rubbing alcohol. How can rubbing alcohol go bad? It's 70% alcohol. It kills and disinfects things. Does the % go up or down when it expires?

I had a bottle of mouth wash that expired 7/2004. I never used it much because I brush with very pepperminty tooth paste. The contents of the bottle more likely evaporated from inside the bottle than me opening it. I found blue crystals around the cap, evidence that it escaped without me watching.

In the pantry I had some canned goods, soup and whatnot that were from 2007. And some crackers from 2010.

So how does this happen? Some of these things are there so long they become part of the wallpaper. I see them without really seeing them. The medicine cabinet in the bathroom doesn't get opened much. The things I use every day are sitting conveniently around the bathroom sink on the counter. Does this mean I'm lazy and don't want to put things away, or I just can't be bothered?  Maybe both. So that's how the medicine cabinet languished so long with unused things.

But it also has to do with time just rushing by so damn quickly. I can't believe it's August already. And 2012. I feel like I lost a few years between 2006-2009. They were rather unspectacular in their unspectacularness. Other than international travel, I'd have a hard time placing certain things on the calendar.

As far as the fridge goes, well, replacing it last winter (escape-of-refrigetron) helped cull the expired things from it's innards. I did save one thing. When coming back from Sweden I had made 3-4 sandwiches so I had food in the airport and whatnot. I still have one sandwich left in the freezer which never got eaten.  And I think it will stay there until I travel internationally again.

Just because.