Talk about the time you needed a flashlight but didn't have one

[Handlobraesing]

There is this place I wanted to explore but I didn't have my light, which means all hope of being able to clearly see anything in there was gone.

 

[Oddjob]

During the Blackout in 2003 I only had cheap incandescent lights. Now that I have been enlightened I wish I had my collection back then. I got by ok but I remember even back then thinking how crappy the beam patterns of my lights were. I did have a headlamp which made me feel cool at the time but looking back it was just not adeqaute for outdoor use.
I was living in an apartment with my girlfreind (now wife) and we had to go over to my her parents house to let the dog out (her parents were stuck downtown). Walking down the hallway with the headlamp was alright but when I got outside to the parking lot I really wished that I had something brighter.
I think a lot of people were caught off guard during that flashaholic dream come true. Although I am prepared now for any kind of blackout I wonder how many others are. I also wonder if and how many flashaholics were born during that time as well.

 

[cutlerylover]

How about every single time I was in a blackout before I knew about CPF...It was all about candles back then...not now, lol, when the lights go out the house ends up brighter than it was when the power was on...hehehehe

 

[Supernam]

I don't remember being in any situations needing a light and not having one before CPF, although I know I have been in some. I just can't recall... it was such a dark era in my life. lol

 

[Lobo]

I had a date on the beach last summer, and there was no problems as long as we stayed on the beach to well past midnight since it was a clear starry sky. But when we started to walk home it turns out that my date is very afraid of the dark woods, which we had to walk through to get to the car. I thought I had been the perfect gentle man bringing everything imaginable, including a flash light, turns out it's not bright enough for her. She wasn't that kind of girl that wanted to make a big fuzz of it either, but I could clearly tell how frightened she was clinging on to me trembling and jumping to every sound, so I really felt sorry for her. Next time I gonna bring a HID, and yes, that's a flashlight in my pockets...
On second thought, this story maybe dont qualify since I actually had a flashlight and I wasnt effected.
Other than that, I cant really come up with a situation. Every black out that I didnt have some real flashlights maybe? Would have been fun to play around with some real light. And is there anything more depressing than a black out during the day!

 

[flash_bang]

And is there anything more depressing than a black out during the day!

I couldn't have worded it more perfectly! :laughing:

 

[Flying Turtle]

Not exactly an emergency condition, but about ten years ago after Hurricane Fran blew through this area we were without power for over a week. I sure wish I had the collection of lights then that I have now. We burned a lot of candles. I had flashlights, but mostly cheap inadequate ones. It would be easier now.

Geoff

 

[PhantomPhoton]

"Flashlight" + "didn't have one"
This concept you speak of... I"m not familiar with it.

"Flashlight" + "needed"
This is something all too familiar to me. The family learned very early on that they could always find me in any store by going to where flashlights were sold.



Now there are times when I wish I'd have brought a bigger one or needed more batteries back in the days of cheapo junky stuff, but without, never.

 

[TORCH_BOY]

I remember having a Flashlight that Blew its bulb when I needed it,
it was like not having a Flashlight at all

 

[The Shadow]

Northeast Blackout of 2003! Stuck at work til 1:00AM keeping the crappy generator running for the computers. Had a few flashlights in the car... which I left home - took my wife's car that day. OK, no problem, always have one on the keychain... which I left home becuase I took my wife's keys for her car. OK, my work keys always have a light... which I left in my car back home. The perfect series of events to leave me in the dark!
I walked through the dark halls (and bathrooms) using the backlight of my PDA! Now everybody's keys, cars, and my desk at work all have lights. Still waiting for the next big blackout.....

 

[socom1970]

I was with my cousin in his pickup truck in the backwoods of Tennessee about 17 years ago. We were having an awesome time going off-road in some of the most remote backwoods I have ever seen. We started back to his house when it got dark. Just as we were starting back, his truck got a flat tire. It was MIGHTY DARK in those backwoods. I had no flashlights of any type and the only flashlight he had was a 99 cent special with dead, leaking batteries under his seat. We ended up changing his flat tire(thank God he had a good spare with enough air in it) using his BIC lighter that he had with his cigarettes. That sucked big time!!!! Literally, from that point on, I have never been without a flashlight since, and almost always with at least two on me. To this day, I even clip my SF E1e+KL1 to the inside waistband of my swim trunks when my wife, kids and I go to our YMCA to go swimming (no windows in the pool area). Hope for the best, plan for the worst, and always be prepared.

 

[Illum]

How about every single time I was in a blackout before I knew about CPF...It was all about candles back then...not now, lol, when the lights go out the house ends up brighter than it was when the power was on...hehehehe

+1 been there before
you wonder when the power came on the lighting actually dims

 

[alanagnostic]

Back when I was in my late teens one night I had a need for a flashlight but none were to be found. I was at a friends house one night and because of an argument I decided I should walk home (about 8 miles on DARK country roads). There was no moon out that night and even with dark-adapted eyes I had a lot of trouble even staying on the road.:candle: :candle: :candle: Every once in a while a car would drive by and illuminate the road for a 100 yards or so. I still remember it well decades later. Did I mention that I really don't like darkness very much?:thumbsdow

Did I learn from this experience? No. It never even occured to me to start carrying a light. If that happened today I would have enough light to last 15-20 hours easily right on my hip in a holster.:naughty: What a nice feeling. I guess I did actually learn from the experience....it just took me a long time!

I want to thank everyone here for their patience and knowledge that helped me become a budding flashaholic and start a wonderful collection.:grouphug:

 

[Carpenter]

Last year, I was the only one at work and I locked myself out while moving equipment to a company car. I lived 3 miles away and decided to walk home and call someone to help me. It was dusk when I started and absolutely dark within the first mile. I had to traverse both a state route and back road. No curbs or sidewalks the whole way. This was before I found this site and discovered there are bright lights that could fit in your pocket or on your belt. Now I have a P1 on my belt at all times and a 6P in my backpack.

I'm ready for the next time I'm stupid and lock myself out

 

[AlexGT]

For the past 20 years I have never been in a situation where I needed a flaslight and didn't have one at hand. I have EDC'd lights since I was a teen. Guess I'm a harcore flashaholic.

 

[cutlerylover]

+1 been there before
you wonder when the power came on the lighting actually dims

lol yeah Ill can assure you one thing, my family doesn't mock my flashlight obsetion when the power goes out...it onyl happend 2 times since I joined CPF but it went like this both times...

(power goes out) Jeff....Im sorry I made fun of your liking lfashlights so much, could you please get a few for us to use...lol...Ok sure...

then I get a big smile on my face and go for the stockpile...Actually after the second blackout my family members seem to have more of an interest in my lights, but not enough to join CPF...too bad, their loss...

 

[HOEX]

I can recall three times within 24h I would have gladly paid a lot for any kind of a flashlight. This goes back to 1976 when I spent one month doing serious rock climbing in Yosemite. We had already done Half Dome and Leaning Tower and my two Swedish friends decided to climb The Nose on El Capitan. I thought it would be quicker to do this tour in two so I decided to not to climb The Nose. In camp 5 we had met Andy Embick who later became one of the best Ice-Climbers in USA. He asked me if I would join him on a tour he had done earlier on Rostrum. The tour had taken him three days to do but he convincingly said we could do it in a day. For unknown reason, we did not bring a flashlight or we had one that did not work. I do not remember. Andy was in a tremendously good shape and I was going down hill with my climbing career after a fall in 1971. Andy said he would save the crux of the route for me which is a final one meter overhang and then just a half a rope left to the top. We climbed the tour and I have never seen a person with such good skill in free climbing. We came to the crux point and Andy was pretty exhausted after his difficult pitches. I made him a tad disappointed when I said I was not fit enough for the crux so he had to collect himself and climb past me just below the overhang and finish off the route. When it was my time to follow him it was already getting dark and when I had to remove about the only piton he used I had problems in getting it out. I suggested we leave it there but Andy was really serious about keeping the cliff clean so I did spend too much time trying to get it out. I did get it out but in total darkness and naturally I dropped it and lost it anyway. It was no big deal to do the final climb in the dark since I was climbing as number two but I would have saved the piton if I had a headlight. The second time I would have loved a flashlight was when we had collected all our climbing gear and went for a fairly short scramble towards a road which is on slightly higher ground than the peak of Rostrum. In daylight this is nothing but in total darkness this is really dangerous. If you do not go in the right direction you could have an interesting free fall. We crawled on hands and knees all the way to the road and made several stops, waiting for a car to pass by, giving us moment of light and the sound for orientation. We got to the road and hoped to get a lift down to camp 5. Several cars passed by but they did not even slow down when we waved at them. We did not understand that it was very difficult to see us. Tired and a little desperate I tried to go out a little further in the road to make myself more visible. I did not notice Andy but he also went out slightly behind me but in a way making it almost impossible for a car to pass by. A car came and just mad it with all brakes on to stop in front of us. The driver who turned out to be a police officer was really mad and said he was close getting us killed. That was the third time within 24h I would have loved to have a flashlight. We did get a lift down to our tents. I guess that is one of the reasons I always have a flashlight.

 

[rhino465]

Carrying multiple, redundant light sources was a learning process for me.

Back in the mid 1980s (probably 1986 or so), I was in the shower in the locker rooms of my college when the power went out to the whole campus. It was night, but in the fieldhouse it was pitch black inside without lights even in the day time. I had no way to see to navigate back to my locker, get dressed, and get home. It actually happened again a few months later, but that time I had a mini maglight in my locker. All I had to do was find my locker!

Thereafter I carried either a mini maglight or the version that takes AAA batteries in my book bag all the time.

I was fine until a few years later when I was in grad school at UC Berkeley. My office and lab were in the basement of an old building that once again was pitch black without artificial lights. I didn't worry much about it, but I knew I had my little AAA mini maglight just in case. The day the power went out throughout campus and that side of Berkeley, it was DARK down there.

That's when I pulled out my trust flashlight and turned it "on" only to find . . . the batteries were dead.

Since then I've always had multiple sources of light on my person. I started with UK4AA lights from Underwater Kinetics, then went to Streamlight Scorpions, and now I always have the following on me:

Two (2) Surefire G2 Nitrolons on my belt
One (1) UK2L in my pocket a pocket organizer in the cargo pocket of my pants
One (1) Photon LED that wear on the chain around my neck that also has my crucifix and 4-way medal
One (1) disposable lighter, also in my pocket organizer


If I know I'm going out at night or where it might be dark otherwise, I augment the inventory above.

 

[gadget_lover]

The darkest I've seen in a long time was a bathroom in a high rise in downtown SF. The bathrooms were next to the elevators at the core of the building with a series of maze like corridors (with closed doors) between the windows and the elevator bank.

When the power failed the bathroom was pitch black. It was a strange building, so I had to feel my way to the door and then the stairs. There was no emergency lighting and the "exit" signs were not illuminated.

Now I always carry a long run low intensity light (arc AAA) , a long throw 1 hour light and a coin cell on my key chain.

Daniel

 

[flash_bang]

well, I don't think I've been without a light when there was an outage, but where can I get an ARC AAA all the same? About how much are they?
thanks for you help, flash