Oregon Drivers Can Now Learn To Pump Their Own Gas

[ultrarunner]

I work in a Hospital and if anything... it has made me cautious.

Things can happen no matter the best of intentions... meds get recalled, etc...

Not an anti-vaxer but I will not blindly follow the herd.

A friend developed several brain tumors later in life... very rare. As a child he had x-rays of his skull because of migraines...

The migraines left or he grew out of them... but almost all the cases similar to his with bilateral brain tumors had the same x-ray procedure done in the early 1950's...

In today's SF Bay Area Newspaper there is a story on pumping gas in Oregon... quite a mixed bag.

 

[California]

... polio, the doctors figured you could have it more than once; not like some other diseases.

Reading Ultrarunner's link I see there are three varieties of polio so possibly recurrence is a different variety, if a person was never immunized after having polio? I don't know.

A related theory someone told me when we realized Dad's health was declining late in life: that people who survive polio sometimes have substituted nearby muscles for the damaged muscles, so those mis-used muscles age, wear out, sooner than they would otherwise. The way I heard it is, this is an observation that researchers are studying to see if it is a valid principle or not.

I think that theory described my father and his swallowing difficulties. He went from simply a hoarse voice in middle age (spoke well enough to be a school teacher) to swallowing difficulties and having to speak more slowly as he aged into mid-80's. Then finally he couldn't swallow without choking so they put that feeding tube in. I think this theory of using alternate muscles described him accurately.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Reading Ultrarunner's link I see there are three varieties of polio so possibly recurrence is a different variety, if a person was never immunized after having polio? I don't know.

A related theory someone told me when we realized Dad's health was declining late in life: that people who survive polio sometimes have substituted nearby muscles for the damaged muscles, so those mis-used muscles age, wear out, sooner than they would otherwise. The way I heard it is, this is an observation that researchers are studying to see if it is a valid principle or not.

I think that theory described my father and his swallowing difficulties. He went from simply a hoarse voice in middle age (spoke well enough to be a school teacher) to swallowing difficulties and having to speak more slowly as he aged into mid-80's. Then finally he couldn't swallow without choking so they put that feeding tube in. I think this theory of using alternate muscles described him accurately.

It's possible that it's genetic. I just lost my best friend of 65 years; to pneumonia. He had a lot of other problems, among them lung cancer that was supposedly "cured", but, he also had a condition that affected his ability to swallow, and it resulted in him aspirating some of his food into his lungs, which resulted in Pneumonia. His father also had the condition, as does his only living brother. Apparently it was intermittent, or at least mild enough that it was manageable in his younger years, but as his health began to fail it manifested itself with a vengeance.

 

[Bird]

A related theory someone told me when we realized Dad's health was declining late in life: that people who survive polio sometimes have substituted nearby muscles for the damaged muscles, so those mis-used muscles age, wear out, sooner than they would otherwise. The way I heard it is, this is an observation that researchers are studying to see if it is a valid principle or not.

I, too, have heard that theory, and I believe it's a valid one.

 

[masscity]

In the mid 70's I had a 1975 Datsun 2wd long bed and went to a Total station in Canton Michigan (Detroit area). I told him to fill it up, he comes back and said, that will be 20 bucks (gas was 1.00 a gallon). I asked him how he got 20 gallons in a 11.9 gallon tank and he said, that's what it took. I said let's get the police over here and you can explain it to them, he said no that's alright how much gas do you think I pumped. I told him I had about a 1/4 tank and I said about 9 gallons. He said ok give me 9 dollars.

 

[California]

In the mid 70's I had a 1975 Datsun 2wd long bed and went to a Total station in Canton Michigan (Detroit area). I told him to fill it up, he comes back and said, that will be 20 bucks (gas was 1.00 a gallon). I asked him how he got 20 gallons in a 11.9 gallon tank and he said, that's what it took. I said let's get the police over here and you can explain it to them, he said no that's alright how much gas do you think I pumped. I told him I had about a 1/4 tank and I said about 9 gallons. He said ok give me 9 dollars.

Memories! I bought one used and it suddenly started to run terrible. I went back to the no-name gas station and had him put it on the hoist and drain the tank (into his trash can!) then bought better gas. No improvement. I rebuilt the carburetor. No improvement.

After some research I read of a defect: The carburetor castings on those became porous after several years! Something to do with the sealing lacquer dissolving or something. I got a filthy used carb out of a junkyard dump pile, cleaned it and put in my rebuild kit, and problem solved. I only drove that truck another year. It let me down a second time, I forget the cause, when I was on the clock going out to a jobsite and didn't make it there, almost got fired. I sold the Datsun and bought a used Willys Wagon - because that was more secure for parking, containing my Carpenter tools, in the city.

 

[turnkey4099]

I remember the Sugar Cubes... for Polio Vaccine...

Polio vaccine - Wikipedia

One of my younger brothers dodged a big one. Kids at school were given the vaccine, One bottle of it was bad. Everyone given stuff out of that bottle got polio. My brother was next in line when the sstarted a new bottle.

 

[masscity]

So that's what the problem was on my 1975 Datsun. I changed the fuel pump and cleaned out the gas tank. I had my mechanic rebuild the carb, no help. I would act like it was starving for gas. I don't know how many times it messed up on me, but I traded it in on a 1980 4wd Datsun. That had a similar problem, but only a couple of times.

 

[teejk]

Memories! I bought one used and it suddenly started to run terrible. I went back to the no-name gas station and had him put it on the hoist and drain the tank (into his trash can!) then bought better gas. No improvement. I rebuilt the carburetor. No improvement.

After some research I read of a defect: The carburetor castings on those became porous after several years! Something to do with the sealing lacquer dissolving or something. I got a filthy used carb out of a junkyard dump pile, cleaned it and put in my rebuild kit, and problem solved. I only drove that truck another year. It let me down a second time, I forget the cause, when I was on the clock going out to a jobsite and didn't make it there, almost got fired. I sold the Datsun and bought a used Willys Wagon - because that was more secure for parking, containing my Carpenter tools, in the city.

Datsun! Renamed to Nissan. Amazing how much crap the Japanese sold into the US in the early days ("made in Japan" then was the same as "made in China" today). More amazing is how quickly they got it right such that Toyota/Honda are some of the most reliable vehicles made.

 

[dragoneggs]

Datsun! Renamed to Nissan. Amazing how much crap the Japanese sold into the US in the early days ("made in Japan" then was the same as "made in China" today). More amazing is how quickly they got it right such that Toyota/Honda are some of the most reliable vehicles made.

Japanese are very disciplined, pay attention to quality at the detail level and as a result deliver the most consistent products. Americans, I think we get bored once we master a product and then look on to the next major improvement rather than tweaking an existing product towards perfection. I regularly deal with Japanese engineers and mechanics in the Aerospace business and I can vouch for that mentality.