Learning never stops

I’m an advocate of life-long learning. Not only did I get my own advanced degrees after I turned fifty, but I have many students in my online courses that are my age and older. Their experiences bring a maturity and richness to the class discussions that nineteen-year-olds just can’t match. So, in celebration of unending learning, I want to share with you three things I learned yesterday:

Car batteries can unexpectedly die, even when you’ve just had the whole car tuned up within the last month. Yesterday, my husband stopped for coffee on his way in to work, and when he returned to the car, the engine was as dead as a doornail. Luckily, he only had to wait five minutes before a tow truck appeared to take him to work and the car to the shop. Now we know that when a car battery approaches twelve years of age, you should probably think about replacing it. Preferably before it unexpectedly dies. At least my husband was stranded at a coffee shop and not in the middle of the interstate. I guess a caffeine addiction isn’t all bad.
My dog does not eat dead shrews. That’s all you need (or want) to know.
Common Flickers are now called Northern Flickers. I grew up calling this particular type of woodpecker a Common Flicker, but I was informed yesterday that the birding authorities have renamed it a Northern Flicker. I have no idea why, but that’s its official name now. And since I am a life-long learner, I can learn to call it a Northern Flicker. Just like I had to learn that Pluto is no longer a planet. I still don’t quite understand why that is the case, but that’s the official word. I have to admit, it makes me a little nervous about the permanence of knowledge if birds can be renamed and planets can be reduced to not-planets. The next thing you know, someone is going to be telling us that recession doesn’t mean recession at all…