There are some interesting things about aging. Expiration dates are one of them. It’s not always a bad thing. We have an expiration date when we die but there are others that aren’t as extreme or final.
My butt has one. I can sit for 60, maybe 90 minutes max. No longer or the butt goes numb. You don’t want me to have a numb butt because it makes me cranky. The good part? I never hang around more than 90 minutes. Most things aren’t interesting after 90 minutes anyway.
My feet had one too and they have expired. I can no longer wear those trendy high heels. Boogers.
My car doesn’t have one. I keep most of my cars for eight to ten years. I am not a car person. All good. I can enjoy someone else’s purchase without having to learn new stuff.
Anyone who has read my blog for a while knows that my appliances have an expiration date. Sadly, they have a very short life. Much shorter than my mother’s appliances. Maybe ten years. Fifteen max. Sometimes replacing an appliance (when they are ugly or inconvenient) is okay. Most times it’s like a new roof. I’d rather spend my money on something fun. And cheaper. Like shoes (that I can’t wear anyway).
I have the attention span of a flea. I’m not interested in gossip because what’s the point? Bad stuff happens to people and it seems wrong to rejoice that it’s not you. Ok, once in a while, there will be a juicy morsel that makes my head spin. But it has to be good. I’ve lived long enough that I don’t get surprised very often.
Patience has an expiration date. Sadly, I didn’t get much to start with and my patience expired in 1980.
My prescriptions have expiration dates. I swear I buy them one day and they expire a week later. Cold medicines are like that. I don’t get another cold until the old medicine expires. Can time fly that fast? Seems like it was just 2007.
Conversation definitely has an expiration. Have you ever talked to someone for what seemed like hours but was really 15 minutes? Yeah, me too. Do the duck and bob routine. Duck out and go to the potty or bar (whatever is appropriate). Or sneak out the back and run like hell to your car! Works every time.
Do you have any things to add that have expiration dates?
Patience and attention span: pretty much zilch. Was going to comment more, but have gotten sleepy – so enjoyed the guaranteed grins here….zzzzz
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🙂
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I seem to notice that I don’t have as lengthy an attention space for conversation with friends. Even those with whom I share a significant and positive experience, I think sometimes the conversations veer to friends with illness or recent losses, and family concerns. It wears on me heavily and shorter times together work better for me. Maybe that’s because my own shelf life is getting shorter and I don’t want to spend it with too much negativity!
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That’s a good way of putting it. As I’ve gotten older I have less time for drama. I don’t mind a conversation on something that is perplexing a friend but like you I weary of negativity. The friends with the biggest issues have always been like that and make the worst choices so they will never change.
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In the back of my mind, nothing has an expiration date. I expect my appliances and furniture to last. My mom’s appliances seemed to last forever. Her tables lasted forever because no one put a glass down without a coaster. Nothing of mine has broken down for a long time. If something does break, it will be a surprise. I will not be happy.
I used to be more patient–or maybe I was just being a good girl and suffering in silence. Now I seem to find more conversations and events boring, and I’m less willing to suffer in silence.
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I have learned the beauty of the word “no.” There are some things that sound fun but aren’t…at least for me. I don’t do them, not even to please someone. My mind doesn’t have expiration dates but sadly my meds, appliances, body parts all do.
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I have an expiration date when the rare thing called ‘summer’ rolls around here in Wales, then I expire from the heat. Can’t pin it down to a date though!
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I love the summer! It has to get really hot for me to be uncomfortable.
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I love it too but we’re so unused to it in the UK that it comes as a shock to most of us when it arrives. 🙂
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You would not love this weekend! After a very cool spring we are jumping right into hot, hot, hot weather.
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Ouch!
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Okay, Kate – you’ve now gotten me into trouble. We have family visiting. They were deep into watching a sports game on television. They insisted that I join them. I grabbed my computer and tried to read your post quietly while pretending that I was watching the game. What was I thinking?! I can never read your blog quietly. I laughed out loud and was totally busted! Great post!
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Mission accomplished! Sports games have an expiration date too. Mine expired in the 90s.
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It seems like every piece of technology that comes out has a very short expiration date in terms of suddenly becoming outdated. Makes me crazy.
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My 2 year old cell phone doesn’t do all functions because it can’t accept updates anymore. Is that stupid or what?
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My butt never gets numb! I could (and will) sit for hours if I don’t remind myself that if I don’t get up and move around some I won’t be able to get out of the chair. As for expiration dates over the counter meds always expire before I need them again. Recently I cleaned a cabinet and found some boxes of potatoes and rice mix and a can of frosting that had expired. I can understand the taters and rice but the frosting was chocolate! Yeah, I let something chocolate expire. I must be losing my mind.
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Sitting at home because you want to is different than sitting in a restaurant or someone else’s home. I don’t get numb butt from that but I have enough bathroom runs that I move around. I don’t think chocolate ever expires. Maybe it’s the other ingredients! 🙂 Oh yes, shame for letting anything chocolate expire.
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Haha! “I let something chocolate expire. I must be losing my mind.” I did that with choc chip cookies last year and thought the same!
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🙂
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I doubt I would ever have chocolate chip cookies past the expiration date because they stay on the counter and easily seen. 🙂
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I had to call the ambulance for my mom yesterday and found out that my subscription to the local ambulance service had expired. Honest, I don’t remember receiving the renewal notice! The whole neighborhood is going to hear me yelling at myself when that bill comes in. How much does an ambulance ride cost now?
As for appliances, my kitchen refrigerator is from 1965. We gave it a paint job about nine years ago. It still looks and works great. When we purchased the new one that we keep on the back porch a little while back, the salesman told us to expect to replace it again in five years. WHAT!!!
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My ambulance ride last year was a little over $500. 😦
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Is that not covered by health insurance? Yikes!
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Some of it was covered. The co-pay was 250.00
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Yikes!
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You will definitely be in for a shock if you ever have to replace your refrigerator. The new ones don’t last anywhere near as long as the old ones.
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My knees are expiring. Loudly. Too much dancing and volleyball, I think.
Worth it, though. I think.
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Fortunately I have great joints and they are all my own.
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Some of my “stuff” has expired and I need to throw them out or take them to Goodwill. I should check my drivers license too. Passport is ok. My zeal for dusting has been expired for months.
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Not sure I ever had the dusting gene.
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I think that my ability to be surprised by anything has completely expired. However, along with that, I’d say my patience has increased. Maybe I just don’t care.
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I agree with that. I’m rarely surprised so that’s long gone. I don’t have patience but my tolerance level has gone up and that’s cause I just don’t care.
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Good question. I’d say for me having parties at the house are over. My patience and interest in doing that have expired. As has my desire to sit in fancy restaurants for hours over long multi-course meals with lots of drinks. Expired. Pretty much any tedious social obligation based on work relationships has expired. Sounding pretty anti-social, aren’t I?
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You sound like me. I think you are wonderful! I have hand wash beautiful glasses from my “entertaining” days that I never use. I like durable and easy washing these days. Maybe even disposables. Yes, I know, environment, small footprint, etc.
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Expiration dates on cold medicine, or anything else I seldom use but would like to keep on hand just in case, makes me crazy too. I wish my passport would expire so I could get a better photo, but I’m stuck with it for another eight years.
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The new photo never looks any better anyway.
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I know… I’ll have eight more years of wrinkles and shadows. This time I’ll be smarter and wear make-up, though.
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I lathered on makeup and it wasn’t enough. Perhaps some theatrical stuff that’s an inch thick would work for me.
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After all those posts I had to check my driver’s license…I’m good until next year. Food definitely expires around our house now that the kids are all grown and living on their own. I’m eating “healthy” and my husband still enjoys his sweets so he baked a cake that sat around a bit too long. We call them science experiments.
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Your cake reminded me of the hamburger buns I bought a few weeks back. You have to buy an 8 pack and I should have frozen half (but I didn’t). Earlier this week, my husband pulled one out to make a sandwich and asked what the green stuff was. I told him mold and to throw it out. He then removed the last one from the bag and was going to make a sandwich before I intervened. The only thing that doesn’t expire here is toilet paper!
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I’m not proud of this oversight I recently had, but I’ll share it anyway 🙂 In May when our computers were hacked and we had to get new bank cards they asked to see photo ID. Scanning mine while waiting for Mister to get his new card first I realized my drivers license had expired 6 months prior. Oops, got that fixed the same day. 🙂
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I was going to share my experience about that, but wasn’t proud either. But now I will share it to make you feel better!!
I just recently had my driver’s license renewed. You have no reason to feel bad about 6 months. Try 2 years!! All I can say is that there was A LOT going on in those 2 years and the expiration date on my driver’s license was the last thing on my mind. But it did prove to me that when yo show your license for ID to Dr.s and hospitals,etc. they obviously don’t look real closely! 🙂
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And who thinks to check its expiry date 🙂 I know my kids will never let me live this down though. We did sign up for email reminders now. 🙂
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Oh yes my kids thought it was hilarious! Hmm…email reminders sound like a smart idea.
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I’ve done that too. We get a renewal but it must have been lost in the mail as I don’t remember getting any. I had to show my ID for a job and that’s where they saw it.
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At least you job was paying attention when they looked at your ID 🙂
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We use to get snail mail reminders but that stopped a couple years ago, but we signed up for email ones now.
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We don’t have that option at least yet. Renewals are easy now as we can do on-line unless we need a new photo.
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We can have either a government issued reminder or our AMA, Alberta Motor Assoc. does it for members too.
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I keep cars too . . . I’m driving a 2000 Honda Civic with less than 100,000 miles on it. I may keep it another 16 years!
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My car is around 4 years old so I expect it will drive me to the cemetery!
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My visa to London had expired when I reached the airport last month. I have a weird British overseas passport. The lady checking my passport told me that my visa had expired and my family exhausted looked glumly at me till the lady returned from her checking and told me I did not need a visa and had never needed one! so it was a bit of magic!
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At least there was a happy ending!
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my passport…. oh boy that’s expensive to be a citizen of this land… and I had to give fingerprints like a criminal… they sadly have no eggs-piration date… ;O)
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🙂
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I have to say that my patience expired… died dead… in the eighties, too. I am pretty sure I never was a patient person. I also have the numb butt issue. My interest in dusting, any kind of house cleaning expired in 2005 when we moved to the Tiny Ten. I have never lived in a house this dusty. Nobody told me about the dust in the country. I think country living has expired for me… and then I go outside on these beautiful spring days and and the trees and flowers and all the beautiful green make me wonder.
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Big house living has expired for me. My next house will be all on one floor with no extra rooms to dust. Just enough for us and of course 4 cats.
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Agreed. We don’t live in a house all that big but it is a 3 bedroom, 3 bath home with a separate family room, a great room, the four seasons porch, and an odd little room off the kitchen that I call my zen room. We have a finished basement, too. Our bedroom is on the third floor and is a loft set-up. I am weary over cleaning. We have been looking at 55+ homes with two bedrooms, 2 baths, a flex room and the “open concept” deal that everyBODY talks about. I will need an enclosed porch of some kind. I have already gotten rid of so much “stuff” that downsizing will not be an issue. I would like the house to be on a slab. No basement. The two places we are looking we would not need or miss a basement.
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We looked at some. Around here they are expensive — as expensive as our single home both in purchase $$ and taxes. I was also hoping to downsize taxes. My husband is a woodworker so we still need a basement (or he does, I don’t). Everything else about the homes are great.
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I keep telling my husband that my growth spurt is still going to happen! He says it expired when I was a teenager! Its like your cold medicine, expired before it did any good!! LOL!
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Tell him “good things come in small packages!”
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Oh I have said that many times! 🙂
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My patience ran out about the same time as yours.
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1980 was a very good year!
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My passport is due to expire in October. Thanks for the reminder!
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Just got my new one yesterday. The picture which was not very flattering doesn’t look so bad with all the embossing around it.
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I won a hairdryer through a schoolgirl’s magazine in 1966. It was pink and shaped like a question mark. My mother still has it, and it works. We purchased a modern one many years ago and it lasted about 2 years. I think I’m on about my fifth now, and that’s mostly used on the dog.
As for expiry? My driving licence is due for compulsory renewal in September and will set me back about £20 (another con by our government)..It’s not that the licence is due to expire, just the photo of me on it! Seems it only has a ten year life span .
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A pink hairdryer from the 60s! Wow! I was going through hair dryers too but the one I have now is about 5 years old. (Sure hope I didn’t jinx it!) 10 years is what our driver’s license picture lasts too. The government thinks that in 10 years you look different! Actually you do! A lot smaller!
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I know, and as for my passport photo from 2013, aaarrrgh!
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Passport photos aren’t good at the best of times.
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Mine’s actually not too bad……….. for a chipmunk. 🙂
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