Surrender your man card here

[Max Rockatansky]

I have changed my own oil, but I found that since shops buy their oil wholesale and dispose of it wholesale I was paying as much to do it myself as I was by having it done.

That's a huge problem here.  I did a couple oil changes myself and I couldn't find a place that would take my drain pan contents.

[kphoger]

I have changed my own oil, but I found that since shops buy their oil wholesale and dispose of it wholesale I was paying as much to do it myself as I was by having it done.

When I was a young child, we lived on a dead-end street.  The street dead-ended at a railroad.  My dad used to just take the used motor oil up to the tracks and pour it on the railroad ties.  Probably technically illegal, but solved the disposal issue.

[JayhawkCO]

I have changed my own oil, but I found that since shops buy their oil wholesale and dispose of it wholesale I was paying as much to do it myself as I was by having it done.

That's a huge problem here.  I did a couple oil changes myself and I couldn't find a place that would take my drain pan contents.

AutoZone and PepBoys right by me both take my used oil.  I only do my own oil changes because both of our cars take full synthetic and I'm not paying $100 for an oil change that lasts ten minutes.

Chris

[Max Rockatansky]

I have changed my own oil, but I found that since shops buy their oil wholesale and dispose of it wholesale I was paying as much to do it myself as I was by having it done.

When I was a young child, we lived on a dead-end street.  The street dead-ended at a railroad.  My dad used to just take the used motor oil up to the tracks and pour it on the railroad ties.  Probably technically illegal, but solved the disposal issue.

Also makes for fantastic herbicide in the backyard.  And for what it's worth none of the name brand auto part stores would take mine locally.

[GCrites]

Probably different regulations in CA. In Ohio I think the auto parts stores are required to take it, or at least the chains have all decided to.

[hbelkins]

Both my parents smoked when I was young. At some point in my youth, my dad quit cold turkey. I don't know if it was for health reasons, monetary reasons, or what his motivation was. I'm not sure where he picked up the habit. Possibly when he was in the Army.

My mother, sadly, never quit. She developed bladder cancer at age 49 that was attributable to smoking. That cancer spread to her liver, and eventually her brain, and she died about a year and change after her diagnosis. What's sad is that her father died of emphysema caused by years of smoking. I never knew my grandpa as a smoker (he chewed tobacco) but the time he smoked caused him to develop emphysema.

After college, I worked in a small office with two heavy smokers. I would come out of work reeking. My clothes, my body, my hair. It was nasty. My next job was also in an environment where there were several smokers. I was happy when my boss banned smoking in the building because it meant that I didn't have to take a change of clothes with me if I planned to go somewhere directly after work to keep from stinking.

I hate to go into a business that allows smoking, or a home or apartment where the resident smokes, because the smell sticks my clothing. There are still a few small, rural stores where smoking is permitted inside, as there is no law or ordinance forbidding it.

In my current job, in our old office. the designated smoking room was the break room where the vending machines were located. The whole building smelled like smoke, and my first office was located right next to that room. That didn't make me happy. I got to move to the other side of the building a year or so later, which helped some. Then smoking was banned, first inside the building, then on state property in general. (The latter is widely ignored, people still go outside but still on the property and no one enforces the executive order).

I just never felt a desire to even try cigarettes, or any illegal substance or improper use of a legal prescription.

As for drinking, it's very rare that I will consume alcohol. I have yet to find an alcoholic beverage for which I really like the taste except wine coolers, so to me the only reason to drink alcohol is to become intoxicated. And I have no desire to alter my state of consciousness. I'm hesitant to get behind the wheel of a vehicle even after consuming only one or two drinks as typically defined (a 12-oz. beer, 1 oz. of liquor, or whatever the wine equivalent is these days), not because I think my judgment or driving ability would be impaired, but I just don't want to run the risk of getting pulled over and dealing with those consequences. (My balance and coordination are such that I'd struggle to pass a field sobriety test as it is.) Plus, alcohol aggravates gout, and the gout flares I've experienced in both of my knees are not something I ever want to experience again. And I'm on a number of prescription medications that discourage the use of alcohol.

[Max Rockatansky]

Probably different regulations in CA. In Ohio I think the auto parts stores are required to take it, or at least the chains have all decided to.

I never looked too deeply into it but I assume that is the reason why.  Making things difficult is why I don't recycle cans or bottles either.  If it's easy I'll partake in cycling efforts but if not I won't.  Either way, I just started going to oil change places as of late given I don't have the time to do things like oil changes myself all they often now.

[J N Winkler]

That's a huge problem here.  I did a couple oil changes myself and I couldn't find a place that would take my drain pan contents.

I have changed my own oil, but I found that since shops buy their oil wholesale and dispose of it wholesale I was paying as much to do it myself as I was by having it done.

I know rules are a little different on the west coast, but I'm surprised there is a charge to dispose of used motor oil, because that creates a perverse incentive to dump it in environmentally sensitive areas.

When I was a young child, we lived on a dead-end street.  The street dead-ended at a railroad.  My dad used to just take the used motor oil up to the tracks and pour it on the railroad ties.  Probably technically illegal, but solved the disposal issue.

My former gym buddy (born in the late 1950's) remembers his father disposing of old oil by pouring it along the fence line on their property.

As for me, I have disposed of old oil a number of ways over the years:

*  I have poured it into the bottles the new oil came in, marked them "Used," and left them at a repair shop.

*  When our neighbor was still working as head of the parts department at a GMC dealership that has since closed, he took the old oil to work in his pickup truck.  We were later told they burned it as fuel in their boiler.

*  I've lived for several months in Riverdale Park, Maryland.  At the time (mid-1990's--this may no longer be true), Greenbelt Park nearby had a public-access waste oil storage tank and I used to decant my old oil into it, often in the small hours of the morning.  (I could locate the drain bolt and filter by feel, so I thought nothing of changing the oil after dark by the feeble illumination of a battery-powered lantern.)

*  I now take old oil and automatic transmission fluid (which counts as waste oil for disposal purposes) to the Sedgwick County household hazardous waste disposal facility, which is on the same street as the county garage near West High in near-southwest Wichita.  There is no charge for county residents, but they do ask you to sign a clipboard with your name, license plate number, and ZIP code.

Auto dealer parts departments, auto parts stores, etc. tend to be more enthusiastic about accepting spent ethylene glycol coolant for disposal because it is easy to recycle and re-use.  BG Products, based in Wichita, used to (and may still) make a machine that sucks old coolant out of a car, cleans it and restores the additive package, and pumps it back in.

[kphoger]

Greenbelt Park nearby had a public-access waste oil storage tank and I used to decant my old oil into it ...

Decanting your motor oil?  Does that diminish any "off" flavors?  I just leave the cap off for a few minutes before serving, plus I use cheap aerator while pouring.

I now take old oil and automatic transmission fluid (which counts as waste oil for disposal purposes) to the Sedgwick County household hazardous waste disposal facility, which is on the same street as the county garage near West High in near-southwest Wichita.

Does that facility still have shelves of used items for people to shop?

[LM117]

I have changed my own oil, but I found that since shops buy their oil wholesale and dispose of it wholesale I was paying as much to do it myself as I was by having it done.

That's a huge problem here.  I did a couple oil changes myself and I couldn't find a place that would take my drain pan contents.

AutoZone and PepBoys right by me both take my used oil.

AutoZone takes mine as well.

[kkt]

Some garages would take the used oil and others wouldn't, I'm not sure why.  The ones that took it all charged.

[GCrites]

Ok then, what is the procedure where you live once at the auto parts store or repair shop with your old oil? Where I live they point you to the area in the back of the stockroom where the drum is kept and you dump it in the drum yourself.

[kkt]

They took the fee, wrote down my name and contact info, and dumped the oil into the drum themselves.

[Duke87]

This will vary from place to place. In New York any store that sells motor oil is required by law to accept it used for disposal free of charge.

I don't know offhand what stores in CT do or don't do, but our local municipal recycling center takes it.

When I was a kid my dad would just put the used motor oil in the empty containers the new oil came in, put the cap back on, and throw it in the regular garbage. Obviously you are not supposed to do this now, and I don't think you were technically supposed to do it then either, but proper alternatives were not easily come by at the time and this is at least better than just dumping it on the ground or down the drain.


Meanwhile if you have a diesel vehicle, dumping it in the fuel tank to be burned up is an option! (but do filter it first)

[LM117]

Ok then, what is the procedure where you live once at the auto parts store or repair shop with your old oil? Where I live they point you to the area in the back of the stockroom where the drum is kept and you dump it in the drum yourself.

That's what I do at AutoZone.

[hbelkins]

A service station (remember those?) that operated my hometown heated its service bays and office area with a heater specifically designed to burn used motor oil.

A number of auto parts places and oil change places in this area have signs saying, "Recycle your used motor oil here!"

My dad used to change his own oil in some of his vehicles, and he would always save the oil in gallon jugs. We used the oil to lubricate an old-style sickle mower he used with his tractor to keep his field mowed until he got a bush hog. My brother and I would be on standby when he was mowing. Every so often, we'd pour the oil on the sickle blade to make it run more smoothly.

[webny99]

I must say, this has been one of the more interesting topics to follow while occasionally lurking in my time "away"  from the forum. Speaking of surrendering your man card, I hope you brought your blue-light filter reading glasses, because this post (which I composed offline) got a little lengthy!
I would have to start by asking what exactly the prerequisites for a man card are in the first place.. is just being a male over age ~18 enough? Is it up to me to determine what's sufficient and what isn't, or is there some predetermined set of standards?

First, some of the things that others have mentioned:
- I am fairly capable of grilling, so that's out for me. I've been surprised at how much it's been mentioned here given that it's a non-physical task that's fairly easy with a little bit of know-how and the right supplies. Pro tip that might cost me my man card: charcoal briquettes are much better and easier to work with than lump charcoal.

- Sitting down to pee does strike me as unmasculine. Of course, I'm a pretty tall and sizable guy, so — **TMI warning** — I will sometimes do that part standing up, flush, and then sit down to take care of the other business. Depends on the toilet seat though!

- Like several others here, I am not that interested in cars, and certainly have never done my own oil change or anything like that. I can usually identify the make and model of a car unless it's something real odd, but that's more from stored memory than something I've consciously been interested in learning.

- I can tolerate coffee — almost always iced, but I will have hot coffee once in a blue moon. Same with tea; I primarily drink iced green tea and can probably count on one hand the number of times I've had a cup of hot tea.

- I don't like animals in general, so I don't have much of a take on the dogs vs. cats debate, although cats generally slink away from you instead of bounding towards you, so that's points in their favor IMO.

- Crying in public: uhhh... why would I do that?

Cause, like, traditional masculine things have just never appealed to me, I guess. Sports are about as interesting to me as watching someone else play a card game. I've never been athletic. I can build things with my bare hands but it's never been pleasurable to me, just a means to an end that I want to get done with as soon as possible ... Power tools kind of scare me. Never been interested in cars as anything other than a means to bring me to road signs I want to look at ...

Oh man, this was so relatable. Especially the part about sports and athleticism. I hated gym in school and was not interested in sports at all until the last couple of years, and nowadays I loosely follow the NBA and NFL, more for the analysis and storylines than what's happening on the field/court, although following that has in turn made the on-field action come alive a bit more. I can name all 32 NFL teams, at least half of the NBA and MLB teams, and a handful of NHL teams, so I guess I'm probably close to average for a sports follower in that respect, although I still feel lost at sea during in-depth sports conversation.

You have a line in your sig that warrants having your man card forcibly taken from you, ripped apart, then burned, and you being put on a "no more man cards" list.
You can probably figure out which line.

Keep right except to pass?

I'm pretty sure it's the Orleans County one, actually.

(Also, kphoger, I think that line has run its course, and you may feel free to remove it at any time...)

[thspfc]

Glad you're back, webny99. I figured you would return at some point, but not this soon . . .

[Max Rockatansky]

Speaking of tires (since this thread is back), I had to change a flat just this past Sunday.  It took maybe 20 minutes because I had hard time find the segment in my manual which had the lug nut tightening order and torque setting.

Regarding peeing and sitting down.  Sometimes I do that at night so I don't wake my wife or the dogs up.  The sprinkling noise and flush in particular raise the alarm for the dogs.  I usually get up to run at 4:45 AM and don't let them out until I get back until 6-6:30 AM.

[webny99]

Am I the only one who doesn't use the little hole in underwear to pee??

The little hole is too little or doesn't exist on modern underwear.

Not being there seems to me like a problem, because then you have to undo your belt to use a urinal, which is an inconvenience and waste of time (if you're wearing a belt, of course).

* I dislike body hair so I remove most of it (apart from my legs);

You are my opposite!  I still wish I had more body hair.  Actually, around the time I turned 18, I tried using topical minoxidil on my body, but it didn't work so well, because I never got much hair on my back and shoulders, much to my personal disappointment.

Honestly, my body hair isn't great. Sure, I have a good head of hair, and a decent beard. But the rest of my body hair was just adequate at best. Never enough for me to be satisfied with it. The shaving started with just my gentleman's area, and then over the following years spread elsewhere. In addition to my legs, I've actually kept my chest hair, but it's mostly a strong center line and stuff between my man boobs

This is an interesting one. I've never understood why any guy, aside from maybe a professional athlete, would shave their legs, or even more so, their arms. It rarely looks any better — often worse IMO — and it will only make the hair grow back faster unless you invest in a long-term solution like waxing.

Other areas, back and shoulders especially, are more understandable.
I am a pretty hairy person, and I don't like having back and shoulder hair, but there's not a ton I can do about it without spending a lot more time, money, and energy than I think it's worth. Recently, I have shaved my shoulders and part of my chest hair (leaving a roughly heart-shaped section). I do find that the remaining back hair is more bearable with a clean-shaven neck and shoulders. But I will keep my chest hair, thanks! 

My point is that I think it's fairly rare for a man to have never smoked anything at all–not even once.  To wit, I think I can count on one hand the number of others on here who have said they never have either.

I never have and don't intend to, so that makes at least five people (and quite possibly more) here in this thread if I counted correctly.

[kphoger]

it will only make the hair grow back faster

claim not supported by science

[1995hoo]

Am I the only one who doesn't use the little hole in underwear to pee??

The little hole is too little or doesn't exist on modern underwear.

Not being there seems to me like a problem, because then you have to undo your belt to use a urinal, which is an inconvenience and waste of time (if you're wearing a belt, of course).

....

No, you don't. I have a couple of pairs of SAXX brand underwear with no convenience hole. You just open your fly, pull the front of the underwear down, do your business, then put things back in the proper place. (Easier in summertime when wearing an untucked shirt and no undershirt, to be sure.)

SAXX brand underwear are the ones that advertise the "ball park" design intended to reduce chafing on your legs when you exercise or work outdoors.

[Scott5114]

This is an interesting one. I've never understood why any guy, aside from maybe a professional athlete, would shave their legs, or even more so, their arms. It rarely looks any better — often worse IMO — and it will only make the hair grow back faster unless you invest in a long-term solution like waxing.

I actually just shaved my arms last Thursday (and thought of this thread while doing it). Reason being, I work in cannabis, and whenever we get called to do a defoliation job, it involves a lot of reaching in between branches of plants with big flowers covered in sticky resin.* At the end of my shift, it feels just like I took a bath in Mountain Dew. Removing the hair from my arms gives less surface area for resin to stick to, and makes it easier to remove it all with an alcohol wipe.

I personally find amount of body hair on a person to be inversely proportional to attractiveness, but I think that's a matter of personal taste.

* Those more familiar with the care and feeding of C. sativa might ask, "why are you defoliating plants that are so deep in flower that you're getting resin on your arms?" The answer is, if a grow is backlogged enough that they're calling a contractor in to do their defoliation, chances are they haven't managed to get around to defoliating in a timely enough manner.

[webny99]

Glad you're back, webny99. I figured you would return at some point, but not this soon . . .

For the moment, anyways. I had been lurking here and there, and eventually my pre-composed posts and open tabs of stuff I wanted to link to in those posts got out of hand, so I decided to clean them up. 

As I try to get better with time management, my approach of the past few months might continue...

[Max Rockatansky]

This is an interesting one. I've never understood why any guy, aside from maybe a professional athlete, would shave their legs, or even more so, their arms. It rarely looks any better — often worse IMO — and it will only make the hair grow back faster unless you invest in a long-term solution like waxing.

I actually just shaved my arms last Thursday (and thought of this thread while doing it). Reason being, I work in cannabis, and whenever we get called to do a defoliation job, it involves a lot of reaching in between branches of plants with big flowers covered in sticky resin.* At the end of my shift, it feels just like I took a bath in Mountain Dew. Removing the hair from my arms gives less surface area for resin to stick to, and makes it easier to remove it all with an alcohol wipe.

I personally find amount of body hair on a person to be inversely proportional to attractiveness, but I think that's a matter of personal taste.

* Those more familiar with the care and feeding of C. sativa might ask, "why are you defoliating plants that are so deep in flower that you're getting resin on your arms?" The answer is, if a grow is backlogged enough that they're calling a contractor in to do their defoliation, chances are they haven't managed to get around to defoliating in a timely enough manner.

Heat and a lot of it makes shaving certain areas of body extremely viable in terms of comfort out in the Southwest.