FREE FUEL: The sight of escalating gasoline prices doesn't faze Bob Wallace. Wallace is a retired metallurgist who is experimenting with using 100 percent used cooking oil to fuel his 29-year old diesel-powered Mercedes. He even bought the car expressly to test his theories.
His theory is that in our mild climate diesel cars can run on 100 percent recycled cooking oil and that no diesel need be added for fear of the solution solidifying. Wallace picks up his free fuel at a Cupertino restaurant twice a week where they fill 5-pound jugs with used cooking oil for him.
Then comes the laborious task of filtering off all the sludge. Over time and trial, his homemade filters and decanting methods have become increasingly efficient, less time consuming. After the oil has been filtered he gradually adds it to the Mercedes' tank. The tank is 90 percent cooking oil at the moment.
He can gauge the percentage because of a testing device he rigged up—a viscometer, consisting of test tubes of differing percentages of oil and biodiesel to test viscosity. The device also measures viscosity at different temperatures. Wallace's son took digital photos so the timing could be accurately plotted.
Cooking oil flows so fast that it can't be timed without mechanical help. "This wouldn't work in the Midwest but in our mild winters there's no threat of the oil turning solid from the cold," Wallace assures. He expects to have the Mercedes running on 100 percent cooking oil by next week.
And that's when he'll tell the Sierra Club members about his findings. The club meets Feb. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Saratoga Library. The evening's topic is "Petro, Biodiesel or Canola?" Three Santa Cruz residents who make biodiesel fuel will talk about their product.
As for the future, "When the rest of you are spending $10 a gallon for gas, I'll be the one sailing by in my Mercedes, waving jauntily," the self-described low-level snob says.
USE IT OR LOSE IT: Stanford Professor Dr. Walter Bortz assured his Saratoga Senior Center listeners that what used to be thought of as a definition of old age is actually an accounting of diseases. "Would you define childhood as polio?" he asked. By the same reasoning it's inaccurate to define old age as Alzheimers, diabetes or arthritis.
Bortz is a specialist on aging and the author of Dare To Be 100, one of his four books. His contention is that we all have 100 years in the bank; whether we make it there depends on how we spend the preceding years. He called guts and smarts the main ingredients to a long, healthy life.
And he discounted heredity as much of a factor—heredity accounts for only 15 percent of one's longevity, he said. Bortz's theme was use it or lose it, particularly where exercise is concerned. In one study, 90-year-olds began a regime of pumping iron for six weeks and the results were amazing.
The participants lowered their blood pressure, weight and cholesterol. Bortz practices what he preaches: He has run the Boston Marathon 40 times and traditionally wins in his age division. He vows to continue this practice until he dies.
Make yourself necessary to others is another of his guiding principles: Indeed, that motto may be the meaning of life. Socialization plays a large role in maintaining a fulfilling life, too. Since his listeners, mostly in their 80s, are very active in the community, they adequately answer that criteria.
SOLO MANEUVER: If you've ever wondered if you can give yourself the Heimlich maneuver Judy Bingman has the answer. That's exactly what she did when she began choking on a piece of meat and couldn't breathe. She bent over and rammed herself below the sternum repeatedly against the back of a chair.
On the third attempt the meat was dislodged and flew out. "I've taken classes in the Heimlich but never thought I'd be giving it to myself," she says, amazed and relieved. She was so terrified she shook for two hours afterward. Weeks later the area she pummeled is still slightly bruised.
She was alone at the time and thought she was a goner. No way would 911 emergency medics be able to get to her mountain home soon enough. Her doctor, Allen McGrath, suggested she make the news public so others would realize the maneuver works even solo.
IN APPRECIATION: The League of Women Voters held an Appreciation Party last week for elected officials in Saratoga, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Campbell at the home of Marjory and George Bunyard. Members of the state legislature, the county board of supervisors, councils and school boards
were invited.
JEWELRY SALE: A recycled jewelry sale to benefit the Myoelectric Limb Project for children will be held Feb. 24, 25 p.m. and 79 p.m., 15 Massol Ave., Los Gatos. Contact Noreen Christopher at 408.395.7952. Inner Wheel is the sponsor and its members are Saratoga Rotary spouses.
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By Mary Ann Cook