Night Shift

bykfixer

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John 3:16
It was pretty scarey only being 5 flashlights from having to resort to the cel-light. And working in tim-buc-2 meant no country store for batteries after sundown.

At one point I clipped my edc 1x aaa to my hard hat brim for a temporary head lamp. Not the same but it was better than nothing. I did have my favorite LED light, the yellow body G2x Pro (320 edition) and as always was impressed with how bright that one appears to be.
 

bykfixer

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So last night I had a Bravo hi/lo clipped to my pocket and wanted to shine it on an object about 100 feet awat so "chapow" I whip it out and click the on switch. My instinct was it was the single setting Bones so when what looked like very little light was shining I thought "awe man crap I didn't bring any spares"…… then it dawned on me to twist the tailcap a little.

Tahah! Let there be bright.
Sleep, it does a body good. (anybody remember that old milk comercial slogan?)
 

scout24

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Byk- Coming into that "glad to be working night shift" weather, no? Cooler and hopefully a bit less traffic.
 

bykfixer

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Awe, yeah. After Memorial Day we expect major traffic this year. And the seasonal oven just kicked on recently with the sauna soon to follow.

There's another virtue to working at night many value the most; no bosses around. Those pain in the butt types whose sole reason for being employed at the company is to look for things folks are doing wrong. Those people are at home plotting to over throw their boss or if they are out and about they're usually doing something they'd prefer not to get caught doing…… yeah those people.

And then there's the flashlight fun.

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One guy the other night was holding a thin square dinner plate looking light to light up the work that was absolutely amazing.
 

bykfixer

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Night shift involved hanging a big ole sign over the road

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Had to stop traffic while the horizontal portion was fastened to the pole.
Instead of honking their horns some motorists got out of their cars and took photos. Not everyday you see a big ole sign being hung.

There was one light plant shining millions of candle power in one direction....towards me. A worker in a bucket had a hard hat light trying to bust the mega shadow while he fastened bolts. I shined my Maglite ML150 to his right a bit. While diligently trying to hurredly fasten bolts I heard "thank you" from the guy. That was pretty cool to hear.
 
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bykfixer

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On the way to a night shift project as I left the interstate and was heading down the ramp to a main drag I was approaching a small sirport runway. I was already taking photos of the sunset while driving when...

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A small plane flew over my head trying to land before dark.
You don't see that every day, and have a camera handy.
 

bykfixer

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Yes, that is a trench box the backhoe sets into the trench via a chain on each corner clamped in the center and attached to the bucket. If I get the chance tonight I'll take a photo of it being set in the trench.

They had just begun removing the pavement in the photo. Soon after the trench box was in the hole they dug.
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Without my handy PKDL PR-1

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With my handy PKDL PR-1

One thing I noticed is that crew no longer relies on celphone flashlights but now has $5 Energizer headlamps on their hard hats. Ha, they turn them on at the start of a shift and by midnight a celphone light would be brighter.

I've worked around that company a few years now and they still marvel at how bright my PR-1 is and still choke when I tell them how much it costed in 2016. ($89 btw)
 
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PhotonWrangler

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In a handbasket

Yes, that is a trench box the backhoe sets into the trench via a chain on each corner clamped in the center and attached to the bucket. If I get the chance tonight I'll take a photo of it being set in the trench.

They had just begun removing the pavement in the photo. Soon after the trench box was in the hole they dug.View attachment 42092
Without my handy PKDL PR-1

View attachment 42093
With my handy PKDL PR-1

One thing I noticed is that crew no longer relies on celphone flashlights but now has $5 Energizer headlamps on their hard hats. Ha, they turn them on at the start of a shift and by midnight a celphone light would be brighter.

I've worked around that company a few years now and they still marvel at how bright my PR-1 is and still choke when I tell them how much it costed in 2016. ($89 btw)
But your price/performance ration is way better than those $5 headlamps.
 

bykfixer

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Last night the diesel powered sunshine began to spit and sputter around midnight. By 12:30 it had konked out for the night. So all of those $5 hard hat lamps were all they had. One guy had a Braun pistol style light that was pretty good. And the backhoe had some lights on it,

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As seen in the photo there are some street lights nearby so it wasn't like the moonlight was the only source of lumens.
The photo depicts the crew setting the steel shoring in the trench. Or rather had just finished. This was taken before the light plant went kapoot.


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The Braun flashlight.
Heck I considered heading to Harbor Frieght myself until it dawned on me that I have a Streamlight Waypoint in my work truck.

Being not far from a small airport that closes at night, without the light plant going we did see a decent meteor shower at one point. So that was a bonus.
 
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