I'm a semi-prepared flashaholic.

I had a little fun last night that I'd like to share...

I attended a Purina Mills Horse Owner's Workshop at an area fire hall with my wife and her mother. They are the horse enthusiasts, I went along for the free refreshments.

I had the L4 and Cree Buckalite, plus a stylus and two microlights in my backpack. We got to the bottom of the driveway and I realized I had left my spare 17670 at home. I just put it into one of those waterproof match holders earlier that day and forgot to put it in my bag.

You know where this is heading....

We arrived at the fire hall around 5:45. The seminar was scheduled to begin at 6:45. As I ate my dinner I couldn't shake this feeling of impending doom. Not only did I leave my only spare battery at home, I knew the one in the L4 was due for a charge. The only spare battery I had in my bag was a single 123 for the buckalite, and that was supposed to be my spare flashlight for the evening. And though I knew the L4 would still give off a decent amount of light when the battery went low, I would prefer it to be at full power in an emergency.

As I pondered having another piece of cake, I continued to mentally scold myself for not buying more batteries and even tried calculating the amount of full lumens I might have left on that used 17670....
At 6:30 the lights went out! :lolsign:

I had the L4 and cree out of my pants and on the table, with a big grin on my face, before the emergency lights kicked on.

There were a lot of emergency lights around the room, darn, and they had the generator turned on within a few minutes, double darn, but I was still happy to have my lights at hand, low batteries or not.

The seminar began on time, the night went on without further incident and the main power was restored within an hour.

The first thing I did as soon as I got home was put that spare battery in my bag. :laughing:


Lesson learned: DON'T FORGET THE BATTERIES!

You may want to grab a few more match holders and stuff them with primaries. I have a Pelican 1010 with 15 123's in my BOB, a match holder with 2 123's in each car and in my work van. That way you can use your rechargeables most of the time, but still have plenty of backup.

Just the kind of thing im trying to avoid by recharging my NiMh's ever 1-2 weeks / after every use longer than 20 minutes.

But... even this plan can go wrong sometimes. A few days ago i was going to do the regular battery change... only to see the spares are missing.
No big hassle though, turns out my father took them.

Good story. I know exactly that feeling of self-doubt and darkness. I'm always paranoid as hell when I'm using 17670's in my L4. Always have my backup, Fenix LOD(need a Amilite T5 for better backup) with me though. There's always something about having the feeling of the battery not being fully charged and having to use it and have it go low. I also agree with having not only rechargeables but also the primaries with you as spare. Two is better then one. If only the L4 had a 2+ hour runtime on high......(DREAM)

If I could carry a backpack with me all the time, half of the items in there would be lights.

It pays to be prepared,

Believe me, I'm going to buy plenty more primaries and 17670s as soon as I can afford it.

I'm happy to have my L2D working again, as that has become my backup light. And I already have half a dozen pairs of NiMH on hand.

Good story. I bet even in your situation you were better prepared than 99% of the people in the room...

zx7dave said:

Good story. I bet even in your situation you were better prepared than 99% of the people in the room...

Click to expand...

My mother-in-law said they had a couple of "big ones" lighting up the restroom but the speaker was still talking and I didn't want to be rude and get up. And later I thought I saw one old lady pass a small light to another, but other than that I was alone.

I was hoping that, being in a fire station, that someone might come out with a cool light.

Which reminds me, when the L4 came in the mail I asked my boss, a volunteer fireman, if he had any good lights and the answer was 'no.' And worse, he doesn't even have a fire extinguisher at home!