I'm not sure exactly what you are implying in your reference to ethanol free fuel and spark knock. Whether the fuel is formulated with ethanol or not, it is the octane rating of the fuel that one needs to be cautious of (regarding the need to control spark knock) if you have a choice of buying ethanol laced fuels, or ethanol free. I have doubts about a 1980s engine having a compression ratio high enough to require use of anything above 87 octane rating. The real concerns of ethanol blended fuels is that some rubber parts of the fuel system components might not fare very well in the presence of ethanol, plus the fact that ethanol blended fuels DO tend to collect more water vapor from the atmosphere (through tank vent respiration) and precipitate that out later on. Your vintage of engine might in fact benefit from keeping ethanol away from its rubber fuel system parts as ethanol blended fuels were well below the OEM radar back them days. Most of the issues due to ethanol attacking certain rubber parts has been addressed by OEMs improving ethanol resistance in the latest rubber compounds they use for making their parts. As to the extra water..........about the only way to guard against that becoming a problem is to not store large amounts of fuel for extended periods of time. One way to keep from having extra fuel on hand for the OPE fleet is top off the fuel tank as far as it can be filled at the time of dead-lining the machine for the off season. A completely full tank respires less volume of atmosphere when ambient temperatures fluctuate. After doing that, any fuel you have left over should be poured into your car or truck fuel tank for daily driving.

My brother and 2 sisters and I had a blast planning my mother's 70th birthday party. We come from a very corny family that loves to sing together so keep that in mind when reading what we did. We all dressed the same--light green tops and white bottoms. Kids, spouses and grandkids. Why? Because we did a skit. It was fashioned after a Bill Cosby Show episode and was called, "When Mom Was my Age." It took quite a bit of research. We lined up oldest to youngest and stepped forward one by one to say, When Mom was my age the year was 1980. Ronald Regan had just been elected president for the first time, Charlie's Angels was the number one show on TV (here my sisters and I adopted the Charlie's Angels huddle with guns that's their 'trademark'), and a gallon of gas cost $1.10. Then the next youngest (my sister) stood forward. At one point we all hummed the theme from Star Wars, another point we all did the Hustle. We tried to get as much sound and movement into each person's fact recitation as possible. Each of us said 2 facts about the times and ended with the cost of a gallon of gas. It took a lot of prompting to get our 4 year old neice to say her lines at the end (a gallon of gas was around 24 cents) but the whole thing was a big hit. We also did a Powerpoint presentation to music. My mother's childhood photos to In My Life by the Beatles, her early married life to What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong, pictures of us growing up, getting married, the grandchildren to Through the Years by Kenny Rogers. On the tables we had small Hershey candies with computer made wrappers with photographs. For favors, each guest got a larger sized Hersey Bar with a photo of them with my mother at some point in life with the words, Thanks for sharing Connie's birthday. The table numbers were made from an enlarged black and white photo of her from a beauty pagent in her early 20's. We glued them to foam board, secured them to bases and put them out like a large paper doll holding a number and stood one on each table. My parents taught us songs to sing in the car for long rides. My siblings and I did a corny rendition of Down By the Old Mill Stream with fake moustaches after a funny story about how my father dealt with us in the car. My SIL made a big scrapbook with contributions from all the party guests. It took her over 6 months to gather the photos, stories and rememberences from everyone. My husband, a radio DJ, was MC and kept the day flowing smoothly. All in all, we had a terrific time. Everyone was entertained, well fed and my mother still brings the party up when we're together. She says she watches the DVD of the party every once in awhile, too.

patty...i can feel your pain in your post...i am so sorry about the loss of your brother and how hard this day is for you.....there is a special place in my heart for sibling loss....because it is almost as if somehow and for some reason people who have not experienced it seem to think their pain is less than that of a parent losing a child or someone losing a spouse....i know because of the way people have treated my son on the loss of his sister,my daughter...i read in compassionate friends that when one loses a parent they have lost their past..and one that loses a spouse they have lost their present and when a parent loses a child they have lost their future...but when someone loses a sibling they have lost their past present and future......and i see it eveytime i look at the dead look in my sons eyes...Happy birthday to your brother and God bless you...terri

Thank you all so much for the kind words, well wishes, thoughts and prayers. I read through them every day still, and they always lift me up and make me smile. I've been a bit overwhelmed with the inevitable details of Dad's passing. Please forgive me for not answering each post. There will be a funeral ceremony in the near future at the military cemetery in Michigan. I'm in the process now of making plans to fly back to be with my family there, and taking care of all the many, many details that it involves at this end. So, please allow me to just say, "Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kindnesses to me and my family!". Lynn