nixtress's Diaryland Diary

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Expirations dates and the elderly

I got grumbled at first thing this morning. My Gramps was still in bed when I got there but stumbled out when he heard me running water for the dishes. The first words out of his mouth were "Where are the tomatoes?"

When I stood there, clueless, he pointed to the little wooden stand near his balcony and asks the same question again. Digression: Several days ago he'd set a couple tomatoes there in the sun to finish ripening, I guess. I found those tomatoes on Monday morning, turning to sludge while hosting some vile white fungus and therefore tossed them in the trash. The fun part came in cleaning up the seeping goo that was left behind.

He apparently had noticed the tomatoes gone sometime yesterday. Lord only knows what he thought. Common sense would tell someone, I'd think, that perfectly good tomatoes would still be there and when I'd given him the tomatoes to begin with, I certainly wouldn't be taking them back from him.

Gramps did eventually cool his jets enough to have breakfast and take his pills. Breakfast that consisted of maple rolls about two months past their expiration date. How can elderly people eat stuff like that? I realize that he was raised in a time when throwing food away just didn't happen but really! When the icing on top of the maple rolls is getting mottled and marbled and it just doesn't look normal, might it be okay to toss 'em? He figures freezer burn will just melt off, regardless of the fact that that meat has been in the freezer since 1999. And a little mold never hurt anyone, right? Just cut that part away! Jeepers.

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Happy Wednesday.

N.

1:15 p.m. - 2004-09-15

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