Chalk another one up for EDC!

As a true (albeit new...) flashoholic, I get asked by a lot of people "Why do you always carry a flashlight?". Well, today my wife and I along with our kids were at a birthday party that was held in a movie theater that has tables and chairs instead of regular theater seating, and hosts events like B-day parties, etc. After the movie was over and it came time for the Birthday kids to open their presents, for some reason or other, we couldn't get the staff to turn on the house lights. The kids were growing impatient, and somebody said "Anybody got a flashlight?"...music to a true flashoholics ears !!! So I stood up and said, "Ahem..." and whipped out my E1 with beamshaper (I usually carry my E2, but thought it might be a little too much light for the days planned events), and easily provided enough light for the tasks at hand. It took about 45 minutes for the 3 B-day kids to open all the presents and since I had a fresh 123 in my SF, I had power to spare.
Moral of the story? For us flashoholics there isn't one...we've seen the light. For the non-believers the moral is: NEVER poke fun at a flashoholic...you never know when you're going to NEED us !!!

PJD

...there is nothing in the world more frustrating than a lousy beam...

Yup yup yup. I used to carry and then stopped for awhile (Well I had a Mag solitare but that doesn't really count, an Arc AAA however does ) but now I carry an Arc AAA and a Brinkmann LX...Arc off a belt loop Brinkmann with the clip thingie designed for the Rebel.

It's wonderful, what other odd stories do people have, as in most unusual use of a light? Somone on Arc's site who is also a CPF member but I forget who used an Arc to light up a speedometer on a dash whose lights had gone out...

I recently used my Arc on one of those directories at the mall. About half the backlighting was out so we could see the name of the store we wanted to go to on the legend but not it's number...so I backwards engineered and forward lit the map through the glass with my Arc...perfect! We were lost no more

I was in a movie theater once, when I heard the distictive sound of a ring hitting the ground. Obviously it was dark in there. I whipped out my Photon II, and easily found the ring, returning it to the thankful woman.

I was at a restaurant a couple of weeks ago when someone lost a contact lens. They couldn't find it at first, so I brought out my ARC AA, and holding it close to the floor and nearly horizontal, the lens "shadowed" and popped right out of the background.

The guy dipped it in a glass of water and popped it back in, and we all went about our business.

Originally posted by Saaby:
..... Somone on Arc's site who is also a CPF member but I forget who used an Arc to light up a speedometer on a dash whose lights had gone out...

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Saaby,

That was Kogatana, one of our most valued members and contributors who has just started his fourth career. He said he would try to check in from time but so far I haven't seen any of his posts.

Brightnorm

Br

Fourth??!? I'm only on my first...if school counts.

Filling-up at the gas station tonight, a young man came over to ask..."Sir, do you happen to have a flashlight? I dropped my dipstick and can't find it." Do you have a flashlight?.... that's music to the ears of any flashaholic. Needless to say, the dipstick was quickly found.

I sometimes get "I need a flashlight, not a lecture, can you help me please?"


Al

When we are working on a project, my brother just says "give me your flashlight", when he needs more light. Once, about 10 years ago, he asked me for my flashlight ( I think I was still carrying a Mini Maglite) and I discovered I didn't have it with me. My brother started faking a heart attack.

Now that there are so many small lights on the market (including the ever present Arc-LE) THAT will never happen again!

But twice, while working in an interior room, the power failed in the building where I work, and without a flashlight, it's literally as dark as a cave. One of the times, all I had was a Mag Solitaire, but I was mighty glad to have it, as were two of my co-workers.

Years ago while working field service for a Sony Business products dealer, I got caught in several buildings when the power failed and so did the emergency lighting. Once I was in a library off an interior office during a power outage without a flashlight (it was in the next room in my tool case). I remembered the door to the hall was across the office from where I was. I slowly crossed the room feeling for the door knob. There was a scream and I was informed what I found was not the door. She called my boss and told him I did it on purpose. Everyone back at the shop was still laughing when I got back.

sld...I see this is your first post, welcome to CPF!

Not so much using a light to look for something, but sort of an amusing story from the theater the other night. My wife had left the theater before the movie started, with me standing in the aisle. She expected to get back and find where I sat us before the lights went down. Well, she came in about 5 seconds before the lights went out, and didn't see me frantically waving. So out comes the Photon II with the green LED. It only took two quick blips before I could see that she was making a bee-line for me. When I asked her later about how she reacted so quickly, she said, "You're the only person in the theater of a couple hundred that would whip out a gadget like that."

Several times I've been caught without my reading glasses and needed rather badly to unlock one of those 4-dial combination locks that is "securely" placed up inside a metal tube so nobody can cut it off the chain. I've got one eye that had a cataract replaced and is fixed-focus and the other is so nearsighted that the lock at 2' away is out of focus for both eyes no matter what.

I can shine my flashlight directly into my own eye and force the pupil to narrow down to where my eyes have enough depth of field for a few seconds to read the lock numbers (and then play the light across the dial so the numbers are most legible). Got to work fast, but it works.

SABBY
Thanks, been lurking for a while. Love all the info here.

Steve