I was talking with the local grocer this morning, while picking up another half-bushel of oranges (which fortuitiously are rather cheap right now), when he commented about a pick-up truck driving down the main street, something to the effect that it had a diesel engine.
Now, a particular chip on my shoulder--which can be both ugly and charming at the same time--is that, as a deaf person, I'm constantly perplexed that hearing people seem to know a great deal more about things than I do (despite all my college education), and I'm always trying to figure out how hearing people know these things, so I can use them too.
I asked the grocer how he knew this pick-up truck had a diesel engine.
"By the way its engine sounds," he said.
Then another customer came in, needing attention, and being a nice guy, I took my leave, although I was still mystified. Motor vehicles running on diesel have a different sound than motor vehicles running on gasoline?
Now, normally, one can detect what a vehicle is running on, simply by odor, and as Nebraska has the freshest, the cleanest, the purest, air in the world, Nebraskans tend to have very good nostrils, with the ability to immediately discern even the most subtle of differences in scents. By smell alone, a Nebraskan can even detect the difference between a vehicle running on regular gasoline, another vehicle running on 10% ethanol gasoline, and a third vehicle running on one of these "super" gasoline blends.
It never occurred to me that a diesel-powered truck (a civilian vehicle, remember, not one of these big semi-trucks) would sound any differently from a gasoline-powered truck.
I assume a diesel engine has a louder and clumsier sound than a gasoline engine.
Right, or not?