Fortunately, most things expire before we do

Our lives seem to be ruled by expiration dates. The things we do and the things

we eat all seem to eventually expire. Thank goodness we don’t know our personal

expiration dates.

I think it is strange that some obituaries are written in the format, “so and so

expired on a certain date.” I do read the obituaries each day. If I am in there I am not

going to work. It doesn’t take long to look through them because people seem to die

in alphabetical order.

The expirations dates I do watch closely are on food. The most important dates

are for milk, bread, meat, and certain other items which can make people sick

quickly. I had not really paid much attention to canned goods until recently when I

found many in my cabinet that had expired. I don’t guess I really saved money by

buying large amounts of canned good at Sam’s.

Several months ago, I decided I would not buy more groceries until I used all

of the canned goods in my cabinet and all the items in my freezer. I cleaned out

my freezer in short order but not my cabinet. I am now down to about 8-10 cans of

vegetables and chicken noodle soup. Chicken noodle soup is my go-to meal. My

grocery list is getting to be 2 pages long. All of this came to my attention when my

daughter cleaned out my condiment shelves. I have replaced some, but not many of

them. I have just the basics because I am not a cook. I have cleaned out my refrigerator

also. Everything now has a current expiration date.

There are other things that have expiration dates. When I got my last driver’s

license, I told the lady that I hoped I didn’t expire before my license did. I still have

a couple of years on the driver’s license. My car tags are also current. Most policies,

like insurance, have an expiration date. That is so they can raise your rates each

year.

Most everything has an expiration date; some just aren’t stated. Many dates

are determined by fashion changes. Our clothes are supposed to change with our

age. For some reason, the older you get the less you are supposed to follow fashion.

Just look at your pictures over the years and see how subdued your clothes have

become. My grandsons like to laugh at the fashions over the year.

Furniture and appliances are the same. About the time you get used to a certain

type of appliance, they came out with something different. Most of our old appliances

were more efficient than the newer ones, but now there are also appliances for

every chore. I just found out that the knives are sharper after cutting my finger in a

simple operation.

Many badges used in businesses and schools also have an expiration date, usually

one year. This is for safety, but are you really going to change that much in a

year? Like they say, “If you look like the picture on your driver’s license, you probably

have expired.”

Thanks for staying with me.

James