More Things I Do Not Know

More mind-stretching exercises from my 8-year-old’s insatiable need to know:

While driving down the road today:
“You know the power lines up there?”
"Uh,.... yes.”
“Well, the rain gets them wet.”
“Okay. So?”
“How come they can get wet if there’s electricity there?”
"The live wire part is covered by something else. The actual wires are inside.”
“Then how come you can’t touch them?”
“I don’t know. You could get electrocuted. They always say to stay away from the wires, so that's what I do. I wouldn’t want to risk being that close to that much electricity.”
"What is covering the wires?"
"I'm not sure what it is."
“The birds don’t get shocked.”
“No, they don’t. That’s true.”
“What about those wires that are connected to the ground by the poles?”
"What about them?”
“Will you get electrocuted if you touch them?”
"No. But I stay away from them anyway.”
”Why won’t you get electrocuted by those wires, but you can’t fly a kite that will get in the wires up high?”
"I don’t know.” Weary sigh from mom.
“How come…..”
"J, I don’t know how the electrical wires work. It's been a really long time since I took a physics class, and I just don't remember any of this stuff. I’m really thankful there are engineers who know these things. If it were dependent on me, we’d be living in the dark. Please don’t ask me any more right now, okay?”
“Okay.”


While eating strawberries tonight:
“This one is mushy.”
“Well, don’t eat that one.”
“I don’t want to waste it.”
“Then eat it.”
“But it’s mushy.”
“J, throw it away and that’s the end of it, please.”
“How come they get mushy?”
"Strawberries bruise easily.”
"Why?”
“Just because. That’s just how they are.”



“Mom, who was Wild Bill?”
“What do you mean? Where are you hearing about him?”
“On the computer there was a picture of Daddy standing next to a statue of Wild Bill.” (Our screen saver is a slide show of all our pictures.)
“Oh. Wild Bill Hickock.” (I’m not even sure I spelled that right, by the way.) “He was some kind of law man in the Old West times.”
“When was that?”
“I guess in the 1800’s or so.”
“Was he good?”
“I don’t know. He was a sheriff or something, I think.”
“Who shot him?”
“I don’t even know if he was shot. If so, I don’t know who shot him.”
“Where did he live?”
“I don’t know anything about him, J. Just his name and that he was a famous law man. Oh, and I think you're right. I think maybe he was shot, come to think of it.”
“But….”
"J, it’s getting late. It’s time to clean up the living room and take a bath. I don’t know much at all about Wild Bill. If you want to look up information about him on the internet sometime later, we will let you.”
“How do I do that?”
“I’ll help you. But not tonight. It’s late.”


If anyone wonders why I’m a little loopy, point them over to this post. It is fun, though, isn’t it? Hubby says I need to save these for the scrapbook. Hee hee hee. Then when J has an inquisitive 8-year-old one day I can pull it out and we can laugh together.