You never know what you'll end up researching as a writer.  To be able to successfully get your reader to suspend disbelief means you have to have a lot of information correct.  Do you know what year the stethoscope was in common usage?  After writing numerous historicals set in the Regency period of England,  I do.  I also know the strange circumstance that would allow a woman to hold property and retain a title on her own.  And that pocket flint, a precursor to the modern lighter, was common around 1800.

Can you kill someone using a hat pin?  What was used as itching powder in Wales in 1815?  How long is a visiting visa good for in Brazil?  What do you call that tar like stuff they slather on telephone poles? 

While writers get to make use of creative license, we also have to have some documented sources for certain things.  Plus it's only fair to the reader.  But that means a lot of time spent researching.  I don't know how many hours I've searched online for obscure mentions of events or names, hunted for loops to ask strange questions of, or taken virtual tours.  I've watched documentaries, read books and articles, talked to experts, attended workshops. 

Today, I took a field trip to the local home improvement store.

As required by my current work in progress (WIP), I had to find just the right saw.  I dragged the poor Capt. with me.  I had to know things and he had answers or could at least steer me in the right direction.  Could the saw be used single handily?  Where the blades different sizes?  More importantly, did the blades come in a bulk package and were common enough?  Could the electric saw be run using maybe a source adapted from a car battery?  Was the saw and the blades strong enough to cut through bone?

There are a lot of strange things you find you ask yourself as a writer.  This afternoon, the answers were at Home Depot.