Today is the greatest day of my life!!!

[jpfaff]

Earlier today I went looking for my Surefire L1. To no avail, I asked my wife, and she said, Why do you want it?" Here to find out, she had it. She told me make sure I put it back where I got it. She said its perfect for checking on the baby on low. There is a God... When I told her I wanted either an A2 or U2 she said good that way her light won't be dead... Awesome... 6 months ago she would say I was a freak now she is a Flashaholic.. Life is good...

[mossyoak]

yeah i still trying with my girls none of the understand

[Truezach]

Congrats! You are one of the few. My girlfriend would love flashlights if they had diamonds on them. Which gives me a good idea. A rhinestone covered flashlight for the ladies. I might have to get to work on that.

[Fringe]

Yep, I have a boy on the way and I copped a L1 for my wife just for that reason, hoping it would serve her well. She has yet to really warm up to it yet, but from what you are writting, looks like it will come in handy.

[nakahoshi]

My beloved thinks im crazy too, but i gave her a cheap red laser and i think she might be interested. I asked her "would you like a flashlight for your birthday?" she laughed and started saying sarcasticly "HA! a flashlight??? would you Like a flashlight for your birthday??? oh wait.... nevermind!"
haha, of course i would!
-bobby

[BentHeadTX]

That sort of thing is happening with my family,

My wife still uses her Peak Brass Kilamanjaro 5 LED AA light and likes it (although she does not let me know that) My sons are using my other lights more and more to play around at night. It is not that they are warming up to the lights, the disease is spreading.

The tricks I used before worked well get acquire lights (bicycle lighting/deployment lighting) but the EDC lights are something she did not go for if they cost more than $50. This lead me down the modder trail since I could buy a part here...pick up a part there... maybe a charger etc.

Been living in Turkey for over 9 months and my family appreciates lighting much more than in Texas. They are getting the concept of why I carry so many different lights when I go on my world travels. This lead to my recent successful purchase of a DSpeck Fire~Fly III

It was a birthday present so my wife went for the full boat order that ran $161.00 on her paypal account. One Fire-Fly III, three RCR123 batteries and two chargers are heading across the pond to become my keychain EDC. A few years ago I would of been shot for even mentioning something so expensive for a "small flashlight". Now she buys it for my birthday present so things are looking up.

She also brought up the Peak Pacific AAA with optional bodies availability. A buddy of ours is in Afghanistan and would like an AAA light that is brighter, better regulation, but has the same durability of his Peak Matterhorn 3 Snow29. I told her about the Pacific, the optional 2xAAA, AA and tiny CR2 bodies and it's performance. Throw a 4 pack of lithium AAA cells with the AAA body for 5 hours of regulated bright runtime and it can be lanyard carried for daily walking around and most uses. She told me to purchase one and send it downrange when it arrives since our buddy mentioned lighting is critical at night and long runtimes are manditory. (He will have return it when he gets back)

The 400+ lumen four Luxeon K2 BAM! with McR20 reflectors in a bored 8AA HA-III Mag is still a bicycle light. She is well aware that it will be my WOW! photon cannon but it's primary use is for night time bicycle lighting. A Fenix L1P will soon be mounted on her helmet to suppliment her Aurora 2AA Jupiter on her bike. The disease spreads yet again. No, my wife is not a flashaholic but my Matterhorn AAA 3 Snow29 will be attached to her keychain once my FF-III arrives. Something about not always having her purse with her so the keychain light would be safer during frequent power failures.

I promise I won't mention that she carries an "EDC flashlight"... that might be the straw that breaks the camel's back and she does have an Ebay account

[kbog]

Hmmmmm. If your wife finds out that the day you learned of her flashlight approval is the "greatest day of your life", you may be in for a divorce...

[Sixpointone]

Very nice story. It is nice to know that at times others are not simply accepting of our being Flashaholics, but that they can truly see the useful aspects of it.

Congratulations, it seems that you have yourself a great woman.

[JAS]

I bought an Inova T4 for my wife as a gift last year. If someone else needs alight, it can be borrowed, but she is quick to remind them that it is HER light.

[WNG]

Most women aren't so bright. [pun intended].
Arguably, almost all are dim bulbs. [again]

It takes a D-cell Mag to roll off the top closet shelf and hit them on the head before they understand and get it!

"uh, how many pairs of black high heels you need?"

It's amazing the reasons they give for the overinflated costs of certain things they desire, and how justifiable and logical they are!

If one can afford it, and it's your passion, and it doesn't impact on obligations, by all means. But don't judge others by your standards if you can't live up to them yourself.

My current GF wasn't 'enlightened'. But her youngest son was facinated with fire, playing with lighters, and scared of the dark. He saw my 1W Luxeon 3AAA and blew him away. He had a "SpongeBob" penlight to chase away the monsters at night. I gave him a 8-LED 3AAA for his birthday...he sleeps with it every night. No more BIC lighters. The older son wanted one too afterwards.
And of course, my GF saw the light...how it made the boys so happy, and how useful and bright a good torch can be. She requested one and uses it at work.
Also provided her with a 4-D Mag for her bedside, due to a previous 'admirer' tried to attack her and she was worried for her safety. For those bumps in the night, it has the throw and the swinging heft to give her a bit of security.

But told her to check if it's just me getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, before she swings for the fences. She can tell by the glow of cool white Luxeon I'd be using.

[OwlEyez]

Sorry. I need to log in for myself! Buckeye.

[Buckeye]

Let's try this again.

[Buckeye]

My journey down the slippery slope of Flashaholism started about 2 years ago when I stumbled across flashlightreviews.com, thanks Quickbeam. I bought a SF G2 shortly after that. My wife was understanding but disinterested. I gave her a Dorcy 1AA 3LED for getting ready in the morning without waking me. She enjoyed it. I bored her with the details of every new flashlight that caught my attention. Last fall I talked to her about buying her family Mini-Mags with the Nite Ize replacements for Christmas. Everybody had their own color. She asked me if anyone had purple. (Hint, Hint) It was a big hit, especially with my boys. Just before Christmas '05 I started reading CPF more frequently. I would chuckle at the postings in the forums. She would ask me what was so funny. I would explain and she started to get it. Just before Valentine's Day she asked me if I wanted a flashlight for a gift. I mentioned the Fenix L1P. I thought she would balk at the price, but she told me to order it. Shortly after that I mentioned the CPF LE 4W. She researched it on CPF and we both ordered one two weeks ago. She is hooked and has joined CPF. Her name is Owl Eyez. I now have someone to talk about flashlights. I guess you, jpfaff, and I are the lucky ones.

[BentHeadTX]

Your GF sounds quite enlightened....

Either she likes flashlights or is doing in depth research on how to stop you! My wife just picked up another Turkish rug today... "it was cheaper than your flashlight".

I think I have been had!

[RAF_Groundcrew]

Hi Jpfaff !

That's exactly the reason I sold my E1e to get an L1, checking on our twin babies. In my opinion, Surefire should include the F04 beamspreader with every L1, especially the new ones, that have the optic front lens, as the beam is good for outdoors, but too tight for indoors (reading in particular).

[Coop]

Getting your girlfriend/wife into flashlights is a slow process which has to be planned very carefully...

First, you get her a photon clone for her keys (preferably one with a pink led)
second, you get her a pink maglite solitaire, she'll love the body, but will miss the pink led. So you mod the pink led into her pink solitaire. Now she has her own custom flashlight. Then she starts to notice that that pink soli with pink led does have its shortcomings, so you buy her a pink minimag, Once again, she'll love the look, but the output is ofcourse crap, especially as she is already used to a nice smooth led output. So you get her a nite-ize drop in, by the time she gets used to the NI minimag, you take her on a campingtrip. She will soon find out that while her minimag is ok indoors, it will suck ass outside. So you get to the next step, and this is probably the hardest, you have to break the bad news to her... You can get her a light with better output, but it won't be available in pink. If you play your cards right, she will see the light and you can get her a nice L4 or something. Once you get to that stage, well, Better start hiding your U2s, HDS, Gladius and heavily modified mags or she will take them from you!! On the other hand, that might be a good thing, as it will give you a good excuse to go buy replacements for them

Good luck guys!!

[Changchung]

That is great my friend... My girlfriend just let me be and she is happy with my happines...

[HiltiHome]

When I first meet her, I did know nothing about flashlights, but I had heart about a company called Surefire, to make the best flashlights in the world...
I told her about that, and in 1999 she gave me a birhtday-present..
It was a Surefire 9N. Dont know where she got it, cause there was no dealer or distributer in Germany at this time.
That started it all..now I own myself about forty flashlights, including two HID and some modded LED-lights...

[Nyctophiliac]

You are Sooooooo lucky, jpfaff,

My wife is so fed up with my lights,even when I ot some free samples it seemed to upset her! She doesn't mind them when she needs them though!

Imagine how poor we'd be if she shared my enthuseism for them!!!!!

(I hope I've spelt that right)







...Yeeeess!...These shoes...they fit perfectly!.....

[Luxman]

Next you will need to get her a light for EDC!
My wife loves her SF L2..

[zespectre]

My wife rolls her eyes and teases me about lights (C4LED can testify to that) so how come I can't get my Gerber LX3.0 or my L2 back from her ?!?!

[tron3]

...
Also provided her with a 4-D Mag for her bedside, due to a previous 'admirer' tried to attack her and she was worried for her safety. For those bumps in the night, it has the throw and the swinging heft to give her a bit of security.
...

The proper use of a Maglite defensively is by holding it near the head, not swinging the head. The bulbous part of the head ensures it won't slip through her hands, and increases her chances of yanking the light out of an intruder's hands if it came to a tug of war.

Let the boys have a tug war over it. You'll see even the younger son has an advantage when he holds the head. Besides, why crack the lens?

[C4LED]

My wife rolls her eyes and teases me about lights (C4LED can testify to that) so how come I can't get my Gerber LX3.0 or my L2 back from her ?!?!

Yep! The ladies may make fun of the lights, but when they want to use one for something - they become most practical about the matter and quickly/quietly grab for the light. My GF wanted a more powerful light for the occasional outdoor chore--in a rural area. I'd given her a 3D Mag w/an EverLED. She used it and said "I'm not impressed!" Luckily, I'd just brought over a Sears 1W PR drop-in for the 3D... she was then sufficiently "impressed" and still uses it today.

Another time, I'd bought a small Swiss Army Knife for the key chain. She was laughing about it and I said "hey, this could also be good for your purse." She looked for a second... then w/o saying anything, just snatched it quick! Later, she even wanted me to put it on her keys... At $8, it wasn't a biggie to hand it over, and it's good she has it.

[WNG]

The proper use of a Maglite defensively is by holding it near the head, not swinging the head. The bulbous part of the head ensures it won't slip through her hands, and increases her chances of yanking the light out of an intruder's hands if it came to a tug of war.

Let the boys have a tug war over it. You'll see even the younger son has an advantage when he holds the head. Besides, why crack the lens?

Yes, I showed her the best part to strike the intruder with is the knurled end cap.


The young boys were so taken by the Mag, they proceeded to disassemble it.
I caught them in the act and told them this one wasn't their toy. And not to take it apart.
But I think I have imprinted upon their young minds the ways of the 'light' side of the force.



Aside:
I think GFs, wives, etc. love to make fun and criticize our obsessions they don't care to understand. But when the situation arises that show their benefitial ownership, and the message is so clear, "Ah hah!"....they can't fess up that they were wrong with their skepticism. They just grab it and use it and feel that's enough acknowledgement for you. No humble apologies or gratitude.

Before meeting me, my GF didn't own a tire gauge, and drove her new car for 3 years without ever once checking the pressures...or checked the oil.
Yikes.
She also didn't own a flashlight, a portable fire extinguisher....
typical assumption that status quo continues and shit never happens.
Don't get me wrong...she's a very bright and intelligent woman with a lot of common sense. But certain aspects of everyday life never gets considered, and that's oftern the case for most of the population.

Common sense, is not so common.