When Bad Produce Happens To Good People

Anonymous posted this comment:
Acetylene gas inside a rotten watermelon will cause an explosion when exposed to heat. Probably not putting in fridge helped the process along. 

***By the way, if posting a comment, just start or finish the comment with your name or nickname. It may still show up as anonymous for the name (some folks have trouble logging in and just use anonymous which I don't mind) but if you insert your name  embedded in the comment I can thank you!

I googled  Acetylene gas and learned all about "When bad produce happens to good people".

It makes me feel guilty for wondering if I had been the product of a practical joke gone very wrong. I previously had company that knew about my watermelon, but I can't imagine them trying to ruin it. I did briefly speculate they may have spiked it with alcohol and it went wrong, very wrong,  but since they know I don't drink spirits, I can't imagine them spiking it.

Also another friend was camping with me for a few weeks who was using my fridge. When we shopped they would buy all their favorite things which took up 95% of the tiny fridge leaving me about 5% for my favorite things, like the watermelon. I bit my lip, and said nothing. I could share whatever their favorites were, food is food, as long as it's not laced with sugars and chemicals, I can pretty much cook and eat anything. Their food choices were pretty healthy so basically it was a win win situation, just that I so wanted to chill the watermelon I crave. Oh well.

If and when my bicycle is repaired, I can pedal to the store for a new one. Maybe. My bicycle wars are another story. I don't feel like driving the motorhome to shop. It's too dang hot and too much work lately. I have my hands full trying to fix a mess of broken bits. Life is goof! It's July and I have only driven my motorhome twice since December 1st.

Life keeps dishing out the dawn of a new error. 

Ok back to that exploding watermelon... here's what I learned today!

As soon as a fresh plant is removed from its host plant or reaches maturity, it begins to very slowly break down. Heat accelerates this process.

As it breaks down, a colorless gas called acetylene forms inside the water melon. The gas is volatile and quite unstable while in gas form (which is why when it's used in scientific experiments it's usually used in liquid form.)

The gas will try its best to escape the water melon but as it slowly increases due to the rotting in the water melon, the pressure will continue to increase.

When the skin of the watermelon is no longer strong enough to hold the gas inside, it will explode, often spraying all nearby surfaces with rotten water melon. Sometimes a trip home from the shop in a warm car is the final catalyst required to create an explosion.

Well, that explains that! I picked up the watermelon and KERBOOM!