Wednesday's Wonderings

Since the purchase of my smart phone I have found that I am, while not smarter, much more knowledgeable. This little device has allowed me to find the answer to questions that dog me all day. Now instead of wondering and wondering I have the answer immediately and can continue about my day knowingly. In the old days I might have looked it up in an encyclopedia. We had a library in my house and we had a nice set of the informative books, but I was more than likely, if the answer couldn't be given to me verbally, more apt at forgetting the whole thing and continuing along in ignorant bliss.

My mother was a great encyclopedia. She seemed to know the answer to everything, and if she didn't she would look it up. But that meant we would have to listen to the answer in great detail and maybe even write a paper on it. (I'm sort of kidding) Not really what I was looking for when asking the question as I was more the instantaneous, easy way out of things girl. In her latter years, she still had most of the answers, but I tended to look them up after asking the question out loud. She was irritated at first that I would turn to this electronic device, but eventually she turned it into a game to see if her memory was still intact. "Look that up on your smarty pants phone," she would say, "See how right I am. Or wrong. I don't believe I know everything. I'm pretty close, but..."

Lately, I've noticed that I pull my phone out constantly during the day to discover answers to questions that pop into my head. And when things pop into my head, I wonder if other people are interested in my thoughts and if perhaps a blog post should be written. Thus for the next month or so I shall mid week offer up the questions that plaque me and the answers discovered. In case you too have wondered.

1. Why do school buses stop so long at railroad tracks? This week I have been stopped several times by these yellow thugs and the driver seems to be waiting for something. A train? A train robber? Is there a law about how long a bus must sit before crossing the tracks? - According to several sites, school buses are loud and hearing a train is difficult. Thus buses must stop prior to crossing the tracks to look several times right and left before proceeding. I could not find any mention of a driver having to do this for a certain amount of seconds. Each state has certain laws on crossing and according to AAA in Florida a driver of a school bus must stop within 50 feet, but not less than 15 feet of a railroad crossing. 
2. This whole Brian Williams thing is perplexing to me. Wasn't he the anchor that got hit by a bomb in Iraq? Are we know saying he faked all of that? - It wasn't Brian Williams. It was Bob Woodruff who was injured by an IED while traveling with a cameraman outside of Baghdad. Hmmm. Don't remember him at all. Don't care for Brian Williams either.
3. How many calories should I eat each day? All the sites wanted to know my age, my height, my weight, and how much activity I did in a day. Well, everything was easy except for the activity as each site varied in their description of Light, Medium, and Heavy exercise. I finally figured out between 1320 - 1500 to lose weight. 
4. Is Bridget Moynahan married now? Was that her son at the Super Bowl with his baby daddy? It had to be. What in the world was that kid's name? His initials were JET, but I don't remember now what that stood for. - No, she is not married, but she is dating. Yes, that was her son at the Super Bowl. His name is John Edward Thomas Moynahan.
5. Darcy keeps getting these emails and certifications in the mail telling her she has been accepted into the National Student Leadership Conference. Is this a legit thing? - It seems based on PSAT scores and is as legit as folks want it to be by paying big bucks to travel to Washington DC to learn a few things about leadership and seeing the sights.
6. Jeez, that RV across the street is ginormous! I can't even imagine navigating that thing on the road. I wonder if you have to have a special license to drive something like that? Like a Commercial Driver's License? -  Each state appears to have different rules. In Florida you do not need a special license to drive an RV. Of course, you don't. Florida doesn't care about who drives what on their roads. I found that out with my teen drivers who don't even need to take a class on driving.
7. The groomer told my friend her dog, that she thought was a mutt, is actually a Catahoula Leopard dog. Does this woman know what she is talking about? - Yep, this dog is a Catahoula dog AND needs tons of running and exercise. Which my friend does not give this dog. Which is why this dog is crazy and hyper and out of control.
8. Is schmegma a real word or something my friend just made up when talking to our waitress? - Oh, boy. It is a real word and I can honestly say I never would have guessed this in a million years. This is what I get for hanging around with medical people.