Expiration

Central Virginia, Monday, December 6. The outside temperature is 72°F. The sky is sunny, the air is breezy. Clouds are on the way. Change is coming.

Forecast for Tuesday, December 7. High temperature: 41°F. Snow likely. 

That's how it is in winter in central Virginia. One day you can take a nice walk around the park in sunshine. The next day you go outside and freeze your buttocks off. So stay inside. If you can.

Nuria is going through my kitchen cabinets and cleaning out food items that she thinks are expired. This has prompted some disagreements. I say that white flour lasts forever; she disagrees. I have flour that is twenty years old. If you make bread or a cake with old flour, shouldn't the heat of baking kill any germs?

Another item had an expiration date of 2005. I let that one go to the trash can. Some items are not worth an argument.

I had perfectly good brown sugar that she wanted to throw away, just because it had become as rock hard as concrete. I argued that we could break off a piece of the sugar with a hammer and chisel. She disagreed. So we tossed it.

Nothing really expires on the date listed on the package, except for garden salad. The manufacturer always includes some leeway, just to make sure it's still good on the expiration date. So, let's say that something I bought in 2016 has an expiration date of 2019. We know it's still good in 2021. Don't we? Because that's the theory I've been using. For example, I just drank a glass of water with psyllium fiber that expired in 2019. And I feel okay. I still feel okay. I feel...somewhat okay. I feel...excuse me. I have to go now.