SilverFox
Flashaholic
Often we find ourselves in situations where we have to adapt a tool for our particular use. However, there is a certain sense of joy that comes from having the correct tool for a particular job.
My goal, when it comes to lighting, is to have the correct tool for the job. At least that is what I tell my wife when she sees me bringing home yet another flashlight...
My wife collects Christmas ornaments. Every year she decorates a tree for our local cancer center. This year the theme was the "Windows of Christmas."
The ornaments included animated ornaments along with one of Santa looking out through a window. This is an unofficial replica of the famous Hallmark window in Kansas City. The animated ornaments include ones that you push a button to activate, and also some that pulling a string does the activation. This is a "hands on" tree. The staff is instructed in the highlights of the tree and told to encourage the patients and their family's to play with the various ornaments on the tree.
Being sick sucks, and being sick during the holidays sucks big time. We have found that festive lights and playing with little toys tends to lift spirits and provide some well needed therapy for the people undergoing cancer treatment. This years tree was a wonderful success, and patients actually looked forward to their treatments just to see and play with the tree.
One of the ornaments used on this tree was a series of 20 small mittens. Each mitten was hung by a small thread, ribbon, or chain which is wrapped around a tree branch. The mittens displayed a variety of colors and patterns, and were very soft to the touch. In storage each mitten is placed in its own envelop.
After Christmas my wife and I take the tree down and discuss next years possible themes with the staff. This year my wife came down with a cold, and taking the tree down fell to me. To put this into perspective think of putting up a display of your fancy flashlights, then sending your significant other to collect them and bring them home...
The staff pitched in to help me take down the tree and everything went well until it came to the mittens. The idea was to remove all the mittens from the tree at one time, then to take them over to a counter to put them away in their envelops.
As everyone knows, sometimes the best plans go astray...
The lady that removed the mittens from the tree wrapped the string, ribbon, chain hangers around her finger and held the mittens in her hand. When all the mittens (20 of them) were removed, she got a telephone call and sat the mittens down on the counter to answer the phone. Coming back after the phone call she started to put the mittens away and discovered that the strings had become totally entangled.
A couple of quick attempts to undo the tangle revealed that this was going to be a major job, and who better to take on this job than my wife.
Last night we finally got around to working on this. We crawled into bed early. My wife was going to undo the tangle, and I was going to provide entertainment by sharing excerpts from the book "Why do Men have Nipples" by Dr. Billy Goldberg and Mark Leyner.
My side of the plan went wonderfully. The fascination of medical trivia coupled with the wit and humor of Dr. Billy and Mark only required me to turn the pages and read the book, so my part was easy.
My wife's side of the plan suffered from poor lighting. She quickly became frustrated because it was very difficult to see the various knots and twists in the small threads. While the book I was sharing from is very witty, the humor and wit were lost in the frustration of the moment.
We read a lot in bed, and we both thought that the lighting would be excellent for this task. Watching my wife struggle trying to get the light "just right" found me searching for a better way.
In an "Ah Ha" moment, I remembered my ZebraLight H60 and its bright, smooth beam. I jumped out of bed, grabed the H60, put it in the pocket holder and gave it to my wife. She clipped it to her pajama top and found that light was the perfect tool for the job.
She thanked me for being so wonderfully prepared and letting her use one of my "tools," but also mentioned that she wasn't expecting a H60 as a Christmas present next year. I told her that was not a problem because I already had a couple of them...
My one concern was battery life. She found the 110 lumen setting worked best, and ended up spending over 3 hours working on the tangle. I wasn't sure if the battery was fully charged, but it must have been close.
All in all it is great to have the right tool for the job.
Tom
My goal, when it comes to lighting, is to have the correct tool for the job. At least that is what I tell my wife when she sees me bringing home yet another flashlight...
My wife collects Christmas ornaments. Every year she decorates a tree for our local cancer center. This year the theme was the "Windows of Christmas."
The ornaments included animated ornaments along with one of Santa looking out through a window. This is an unofficial replica of the famous Hallmark window in Kansas City. The animated ornaments include ones that you push a button to activate, and also some that pulling a string does the activation. This is a "hands on" tree. The staff is instructed in the highlights of the tree and told to encourage the patients and their family's to play with the various ornaments on the tree.
Being sick sucks, and being sick during the holidays sucks big time. We have found that festive lights and playing with little toys tends to lift spirits and provide some well needed therapy for the people undergoing cancer treatment. This years tree was a wonderful success, and patients actually looked forward to their treatments just to see and play with the tree.
One of the ornaments used on this tree was a series of 20 small mittens. Each mitten was hung by a small thread, ribbon, or chain which is wrapped around a tree branch. The mittens displayed a variety of colors and patterns, and were very soft to the touch. In storage each mitten is placed in its own envelop.
After Christmas my wife and I take the tree down and discuss next years possible themes with the staff. This year my wife came down with a cold, and taking the tree down fell to me. To put this into perspective think of putting up a display of your fancy flashlights, then sending your significant other to collect them and bring them home...
The staff pitched in to help me take down the tree and everything went well until it came to the mittens. The idea was to remove all the mittens from the tree at one time, then to take them over to a counter to put them away in their envelops.
As everyone knows, sometimes the best plans go astray...
The lady that removed the mittens from the tree wrapped the string, ribbon, chain hangers around her finger and held the mittens in her hand. When all the mittens (20 of them) were removed, she got a telephone call and sat the mittens down on the counter to answer the phone. Coming back after the phone call she started to put the mittens away and discovered that the strings had become totally entangled.
A couple of quick attempts to undo the tangle revealed that this was going to be a major job, and who better to take on this job than my wife.
Last night we finally got around to working on this. We crawled into bed early. My wife was going to undo the tangle, and I was going to provide entertainment by sharing excerpts from the book "Why do Men have Nipples" by Dr. Billy Goldberg and Mark Leyner.
My side of the plan went wonderfully. The fascination of medical trivia coupled with the wit and humor of Dr. Billy and Mark only required me to turn the pages and read the book, so my part was easy.
My wife's side of the plan suffered from poor lighting. She quickly became frustrated because it was very difficult to see the various knots and twists in the small threads. While the book I was sharing from is very witty, the humor and wit were lost in the frustration of the moment.
We read a lot in bed, and we both thought that the lighting would be excellent for this task. Watching my wife struggle trying to get the light "just right" found me searching for a better way.
In an "Ah Ha" moment, I remembered my ZebraLight H60 and its bright, smooth beam. I jumped out of bed, grabed the H60, put it in the pocket holder and gave it to my wife. She clipped it to her pajama top and found that light was the perfect tool for the job.
She thanked me for being so wonderfully prepared and letting her use one of my "tools," but also mentioned that she wasn't expecting a H60 as a Christmas present next year. I told her that was not a problem because I already had a couple of them...
My one concern was battery life. She found the 110 lumen setting worked best, and ended up spending over 3 hours working on the tangle. I wasn't sure if the battery was fully charged, but it must have been close.
All in all it is great to have the right tool for the job.
Tom
