OT: Spark Plug Replacement- Mileage vs. Time

Of course you can, but you have to have enough comming in to pay for Medicare part B. Tricare Prime goes AWAY at 65. If you have Medicare Part B, it becomes TFL. No, there aren't other options. Every month you delay starting past age 65 birthmonth, makes medicare part B more expensive *for Life*.

I'll bet Mr. Marks thinks that the immigrants were receivign benefits DURING their first 20 years in the US, regardless of their age. Or he knows better but wants readers to think that.

Mexico I hear will pay some amount of benefit to anyone born in Mexico even if they never paid in, never worked there, and don't live there. I'm trying to find out if this is so, but if so, it makes us look like pikers. (What is a piker?)

The concluding paragraph of that article:

'Despite enjoying a higher return than native born, immigrants in the HRS group just reaching retirement age will, on average, have paid in slightly more in taxes than they will receive in benefits. However, the difference between taxes paid and benefits received for native born members of the HRS cohort will be even larger than it is for immigrants. Because immigrants make an overall net positive contribution to Social Security, it is in the selfish interest of native born to include immigrants in the Social Security system, even though the system favors immigrants relative to U.S. natives.'

There are similar problems for Part D plans.

I imagine a metallurgist can explain it better, but just like nuts and bolts and pipes of all sorts, over time they get harder to separate. Similar to a galvanic reaction.

That's correct. The decision of if/when to take Medicare is separate from the decision of if/when to take Social Security.

Something about cadmium plating on plug threads being basically incompatible long term with aluminum??

If you have enough money, the cost/benefit disadvantage doesn't matter much, if there's any benefit at all. But I doubt it it's just rich people who get these total body tests. I'm sure people with little more or no more money than I have, or less, often do.

My next comment fits somewhere in this thread, but I've lost track of where, so here it is. Because my (bad) cholesterol was high, the internist prescribed a statin, atorvastatin. Shorly after, some lower level person, who I dislied for valid reasons, misread an ECG, or maybe the ECG was unusual, and she came back with the messatge that I should see a cardiologist. He sent me to another cardiaologist for a cardiac cattherization, which came back normal, which iiuc means I have no more deposits (atherosclerosis?) in the 3 arteries they checked than I did when I was 20 or 30 years old.

At the next appointment, the board-certified internist looked at the results and said "I don't even know if there's any reason to take [the statin]". But he didn't cancel it either, and I'm positive it's not so the drug company can make a little extra money, or that he himself can somehow make money. It's because the established standard of care for people who have high cholestero; (or at least men who are 75 ) is to take a statin, and he's not in a position to say I won't benefit from it. Maybe the 3 arteries they looked at are clean but all the others are almost clogged??? At any rate, he can't run his own controlled study, and he doesn't know of one that says I won't benefit.

Professionals in loads of fiedls act the same way. If you ask an electrician, for example, Can I remove the ground prong for a 3-prong plug if the device is totally covered in plastic, no metal showing**, he's not going to be very willing to say you can do it, even if he can't think of any reason you shouldn't.

I don't get your point. Don't almost all Americans know that TB can be cured*** and AIDS people can live almost normal full length lives**, and if they don't know, don't they find out as soon as the go to the doctor?

Why do Americans need billboards to tell them what they already know or find out soon after getting sick.

I presume in Zambia there are too many people, many times the number here, who accept these sicknesses and what comes next and don't go to the doctor,

My car has a 120v single-phase 2-prong polarized power outlet.

Sometime when I'm totally bored trolling alt.home.repair, I'll go check if the neutral leg is tagged to the car chassis or if both legs are isolated.

Micky, I don't have the budget to pay for medicare part B without social security backing it. The difference in my case isn't that much since I'm no longer working.

Seriously guys, I'm stretched too thin. Don brings in very little due to choices we both made to have a stay at home parent. He does his share but it's not financial in the pure sense of it. No questions on it as no one else's business.

I wasnt' saying you should wait. I didn't. But your phrasing made it sound like maybe you thought they were tied together and i wanted you to know that theyr'e not.

I was just answering micky's question.

The point is the reason we fon't have the TB signs is because TB is extremely rare here - and the reason TB is so rare is because we vaccinated EVERYBODY against TB for decades.

Oops. Was I supposed to do that?

Ah, it's for babies, (one dose is recommended in healthy babies as soon after birth as possible) so I wouldn't remember.

And... The BCG vaccine should ideally be given 3 months before travel to a country where TB is common. BCG vaccination loses its effectiveness over time, usually within 5 to 15 years.

....but.... Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is a vaccine for tuberculosis (TB) disease. This vaccine is not generally used in the United States. The TB vaccine can cause a false positive TB skin test reaction.

I think I once had a TB test, and when I went to Mexico and Central America in 1970 I got all the recommend vaccinations, for typhoid, typhus, and Plauge, but not TB

I'm surprised they don't make plugs for aluminum heads.

Your post about coils failing broke my heart. I sent $10 to the SPCC.

Are Biden's feral illegal invaders vaccinated?

Pa. is down to once a year inspection.

I have another data point. About 9 years ago I was to have an MRI. It was my 2nd try, after I screamed to get out the first time. This time I had an Ambien pill. I think it was Ambien. I was supposed to get there early and take the pill 20 minutes before the appointment, but I was running late so I took it before the 7 minute drive to their office.

I shouldn't have done this, I know it was wrong, but it was compounded because unfortunately, the pill the supermarket pharmacy gave me was twice the prescribed dosage. I had only gone one mile (of the total 2.8 miles) when I swerved out of my lane and hit the end of a curb. I ran to the appointment but got there too late. I came back and had the car towed to my home.

I had broken the right ball joint, the brake rotor, the rim, and the half-axle. It took me a while to fix it, but it was really the biggest repair I'd ever done, so it was very satifying. I bought a matching rim from a website that had hundreds of different rims for sale, with pictures.

I thought I must have ruined the wheel alignment and a major Toyota dealer's sale price was the same as Firestone's sale price. And it might be my only chance to get a repair at a dealer.

Unlike some, as in one of the comments, the repair shop is not where the showroom is. I think maybe it had been but they didn't have enough room when the shop got bigger. They have it set up so you dont' even see the shop or the mechanics. You drive in and someone takes the car and drives it around to the other side where they work on it. I'm sure that's on purpose so you can't pester the mechanics, you can't watch, and you won't know if they run the car for a minute without oil. For that reason alone, I wouldn't have gone back. Would go to Firestone or a walking-distance gas station where you can watch.

While you're waiting I think they have a TV, and you can browse a small selection of small auto accessories, or get things from the parts department.

After a while someone came back with one of those forms shops use. It told me that both my CV joints were leaking and I think the oil and power steering wer leaking and two or three other problems it said I had that I did not have. The right CV was brand new, 5 miles on it, and when I got home, I carefully inspected the left one, top and bottom and it was as good as new. And nothing was leaking. I did the alignment only -- who knows if they did it right -- and had the car for two more years, so I know for that reason too that nothing was leaking, the CV joints were fine, and there was nothing else wrong with the car. What thieves.

The dealership was sold and the crooked people were probably still there and I'll never go there again, but I figured it was too late to complain. I really regret that I didn't complain when I could have.