Mystery solved! in A small but passable life.

About a week or so ago I had one of those rare incidents. The one where your stomach cramps and then once on the crapper (hopefully!) your butt just explodes. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out the cause of said explosiveness, because I rarely eat anything different and what I do eat is thoroughly cooked. Tonight I was preparing my about once a week baked fish and instant mashed tator meal. I got out the tarter sauce (Kroger brand) and noticed that it didn’t definitely look right, but wasn’t expired. It was somewhat brown not white as usual and looked like the oil was separating out. It didn’t smell bad, but I dumped and flushed it anyway. Upon research I found I’d bought it 10/16 and had used it once. That had to have been it.

Five years living in a van during all seasons of the year with no refrigeration and that had happened to me only once, causing a middle of the night dash down an alley to squat behind a dumpster.

Anyway, I had fish without tarter sauce tonight.