In the years before our retirement(s) SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) and I ran a Stereo / Hi-Fi repair/restore shop. Both of us depended upon assorted `penlights' to be able to peer into places that the regular `worklights' we had on our benches. Usually they were pretty much whatever we either went and bought them ourselves or were given as `promo' `goodies' from either our suppliers or one of the brands we were the local `Factory Authorized Repair Center'. Shortly before we shut down and finally retired we were asked by McIntosh to be the repair and recalibration service at one of their `McIntosh Clinics' they were going to be doing several places in the state. As a`Token' of their appreciation that we had basically closed up our shop that day and spent all day working the `clinic' they gave each of us, my wife and I along with our two technicians, a `set' of assorted Streamlight flash lights in McIntosh colors, brown and gold, packaged in a custom fitted walnut case. *That* `opened my eyes' as to what one could get over and above what one could find locally.
Now, you may be wondering where this is going... Well... {GRIN!} This piqued my interest and I started looking at, and even sometimes bought, all the various `other' flashlights. Since we have always had an unspoken `rule' whereby if one goes out and buys something that isn't what one usually buys the buyer buys something for the other person. For a while SWMBO basically overlooked my `splurges' for flashlights until I started buying flashlights that had three digit pricetags. Around that time she also started asking `why?' I had paid *that* much. Now jump forward a few years, about 2½ years, and I've got all sorts/types of flashlights scattered `hither and yon' around not only our house but also in toolboxes in our shop buildings, trucks, cars, and other machinery, we live on a farm, `just because'. SWMBO surprises me by asking me one day pretty much `out of the blue' why isn't she also acquiring a flashlight of her own now and then! Up until then she either hadn't asked or actually poked me over whatever purchase I had made at that time. Now, unless it is something that she considers to be more `trial' of something new, unique or`specialized', she expects me to ask her if she would like me to order one for her. Up until then she would have never been considered to be a `Flashaholic'! (BTW, both of our children, daughter 17 and son 13, are also becoming afflicted with `Flashahlism'! {VB GRIN!} As an example or two... This last weekend while I was getting a few things at one our `big box' lumber, house repair/remodeling stores my daughter tracks me down and throws into my cart a trio of LED MiniMag-lites explaining that she wanted one and the others were for her brother and mother. When I asked her why she hadn't pick up four instead she got this `look' and went off at almost a `deadrun' and reappears, like she might have been `transported' via a StarTrek transporter.)
Now, just today, coming back home from a doctor appointment I remember that according to a topic here I could most likely be able to `score' one of those new Mag-Lite LED XL100s at the `Big Box lumber, house repair/remodeling store' that we were going to be `passing by' shortly and *Why Not* do so! Of course, once I got home and opened the packing `drek' and was starting play with it *All Three* wanted to know if I was `sick' or something as I hadn't bought four?!?!
What I am trying to say is, "Sometimes even those `teatotalers' can turn into `Flashaholics' if one is just patient and doesn't try all that much. {VBE GRIN!} Yeah, it doesn't hurt to now and then occasionally, when they ask for a flashlight one hands them one of the `current offerings' in place of the one they are probably expecting, too.
Just an `Olde Fart's' 2¢ worth. {GRIN!}
