From The Past: February 26, 2009

Kevin is very considerate at work. He takes his own food and doesn’t ask anyone else if he can have some of theirs. He also tries to make sure he keeps plenty of canned Diet Mountain Dew stored in his refrigerator that he and his office mate share. Kevin keeps his cans on one side and the office mate keeps his cans on the other.

This practice has worked for many years. If there is ever a time when the office mate accidentally runs out of cans, he takes one of Kevin’s and replaces it the following day. The same procedure applies to Kevin.

This is where my retelling begins.

Kevin ran out of drinks at work. We had plenty here at home, but he didn’t realize he was getting so low at work. Not wanting to pay high vending machine prices, he asked his office mate if he could have one of his cans and said he would replace it the next day. The office mate/coworker said, “Sure” as always.

Looking in their tiny refrigerator, Kevin saw that his office mate had both Diet Mountain Dew and Diet Coke. Realizing that his office mate enjoyed the Diet Mountain Dew better, Kevin took a Diet Coke.

Being thirsty, he immediately opened it up and took a big swig. The Diet Coke was flat and tasted rancid. Knowing his coworker, Kevin looked on the bottom of the can for the expiration date. It was:

July 2002

He actually got some of his other coworkers to try the drink and they had the same reaction Kevin did, making horrified faces and proclaiming it awful.

If you knew Kevin’s coworker, you would also know this is very typical of him. We love him, but he does hang on to things. Kevin says, “There is a good reason they have an expiration date.”