He's got some kind of obsessive aversion to wasting stuff. Food packages get scrapped clean, stuff (far) past the expiration date gets eaten, paper napkins that aren't falling apart are re-used.
But at the same time, he has no qualms about big expenses. In the past two years, he's bought a motorcycle, swapped his fairly large, but also fairly new car for a new, smaller one, bought a new house, and a new computer we both know he's not going to do anything with.
Today, I saw a half-filled carton of chocolate milk in the fridge, and poured myself a glass. I noticed immediately it was rather thick, though the expiration date was next year, and that it smelled sour. When my dad came home I asked him where it came from - he told me he
found it lying somewhere around the grocery store, and meant to see if it was still drinkable.
Maybe it's got something to do with him growing up in the post-WWII era. Maybe he's mad and I will one day inherit this madness.
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