My wife can't make fun of my flashlight hobby anymore!!!

So of course as a flashaholic, I always have at least one flashlight on me at the ready, available at a moment's notice. Now I see this as a good thing, but my wife sees EDC'ing a flashlight as an opportunity to poke fun at my hobby. Or at least she did before our vacation.....

Well, we went on vacation to Disney World last month, and as many of you know there are many rides that are "I can't see my hand in front of my face" dark. Now my wife has a real problem with the dark because it makes her feel closed in and very claustrophobic. So needless to say, she doesn't join me and my daughter on many rides. But she did finally agree to go on Pirates of the Caribbean with us. About 10% through the ride, she said frantically "give me your light!". I gave it to her and she turned it on and pointed it at the floor of the ride, giving her instant relief from the closed-in feeling...how ya liking my EDC now...

So later at Epcot, we decide to eat a big turkey leg at the America country area later in the evening, but the outdoor tables had absolutely no lighting. Kind of ridiculous really, but no problem here... out comes the EDC (Fenix LOD) and I made a little "lamp shade" from a napkin and we had a table lamp! It was perfect - even one of the employees commented how well it worked. Then again on another day we ate at a very dimly lit Mexican restaurant. She had absolutely no issue with me plopping down my EDC to give us a little more lighting for our food.

Honestly, since our vacation I haven't heard even one wise-crack about my hobby...

Of course in good form I had to take a couple of pics of the EDC in action:





-Rich

Good job! It's nice when you can finally get them to appreciate your lights!

Very ingenious! My wife has poked fun at me carrying 3 flashlights, until she needs a little more light. One of my motto's is "Be Prepared", from my boyscout days. And she can always count on me having a flashlight, knife, pill fob containing ibuprofen, nail clippers, etc. She might shake her head once in a while because of what I carry, but she knows better than to make fun of me any more.

And thanks for the wonderful pics.

My wife has now gotten into the "if you want me to appreciate your hobby more, you need to buy me a good light" mode.

Part of me is thinking , the other my wallet

Great thread! And always nice to have a use for that EDC, my missus used to make fun of me too especially when we went for a barbecue and i had my Gerber Suspension holstered on the left, cellphone holstered on the right, Jet III Pro ST holstered on the right, Jet I Mk IIx in the pocket, Fenix E01 on the keys. She said i looked like Batman (actually she said Fatman and his utility belt).

Tables were due to be turned though, so some genius decided to bring canned peaches to the barbecue (which was held by the sea incidentally) and no can opener. Out comes the Gerber.

It was pretty dark at the beach, so E01 goes to the guy grilling the meat (just to make sure it didnt burn, E01 wasnt too good for color rendition), Jet I and III were useful in general, finding things that were dropped, spotting broken glass on the sand so the kids wouldnt get hurt.

Gerber came into use again when it came time to top up charcoal in the grill, used the pliers to grip the grill and lift it up so more charcoal could be poured in.

Then after a while my wife EXPECTED me to be prepared at all times and instead of "Do you have the nailclippers/can opener/flashlight/band aids/aspirin/pen?" it's "Pass me the nailclippers/can opener/flashlight/band aids/aspirin."

My sister was poking fun at my "wierd" hobby until she found out how useful the Inova Microlight I gave her turned out to be. Now she doesn't even bat an eyelid whenever I informed her I'm going into the woods to test my lights.

Rock on, EDC rules. My wife says the same thing, "hand me your light," "Let me see your knife..." Once was at a restaurant in Chicago, dimly lit, and the folks next to us started peering under their table and moving about. I asked what the mater was, "We lost a diamond ring." Out comes the JetBeam MKII, "Oh, thanks!" My aunt said "who the HELL carries a flashlight all the ...?" They found the ring before she finished the sentence.:naughty::thumbsup:

DuncanHynes said:

Rock on, EDC rules. My wife says the same thing, "hand me your light," "Let me see your knife..." Once was at a restaurant in Chicago, dimly lit, and the folks next to us started peering under their table and moving about. I asked what the mater was, "We lost a diamond ring." Out comes the JetBeam MKII, "Oh, thanks!" My aunt said "who the HELL carries a flashlight all the ...?" They found the ring before she finished the sentence.:naughty::thumbsup:

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LOL shows ur aunt....

The next step is to get your wife to carry a light of her own.

If you have a light outside your house don't change the bulb when it goes out, it worked for me.

Yes, it only takes a few instances like those posted above for family and friends to appreciate EDC's. My wife carries a knife and light because she got tired of always asking for mine!

leukos said:

Yes, it only takes a few instances like those posted above for family and friends to appreciate EDC's. My wife carries a knife and light because she got tired of always asking for mine!

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Awesome! I can only hope that my GF starts doing that in the future, I'm going to have to give her a few lights to try and get her started.

Great thread, I'm hoping to have some more chances to show the usefulness of my EDCs soon... good thing the days are getting shorter now!

It has taken literally years but I have converted (perverted?!) my wife! In the past when she was going out of town I would make sure she had a light in her purse. Upon return she would always make a big production of taking the light out of her purse. About 3 months ago she was leaving town for business and we did the flashlight-purse dance. As it turns out she now leaves the light in her purse, an Ion. The other day she mentions that she had to use the light at work and says, "It was not bright enough, I had to go get the light (an E1L) in my car!" I love this woman on sooooooooooooo many levels!!!

Great comments - this obviously resonates with some of you too... Glad to hear I'm not alone on this... after reading one of the "true stories" articles in my favorite bathroom reading magazine (SureFire Flashlight Catalog 2008 (couldn't get a 2009)) about an E2D saving a woman from an attacker, I got her a Solarforce clone of one (well, she wouldn't have appreciated the real SureFire version anyway!). She "humored" me by putting it in her purse for a little while, but now I see it on her nightstand. On the plus side, she has it out on her nightstand!

So she's not totally converted yet, but you guys are giving me hope! lovecpf

RichS said:

So she's not totally converted yet, but you guys are giving me hope! lovecpf

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done loose hope! i stuck my e01 on my gf's keychain and make sure she atleast leaves the house with a p2d or p3d...

Awesome story!

I am lucky, my hobby is accepted.

A gunmetal 6P sorted out any problems with it!


:devil:

i'd say you owned her lol

jamie

RichS said:

*snip*

........my wife sees EDC'ing a flashlight as an opportunity to poke fun at my hobby......

Now my wife has a real problem with the dark because it makes her feel closed in and very claustrophobic.


-Rich

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That does not compute


I mean, it's a tool that would relieve her fear, and she makes fun of it and wouldn't carry one?

I'm afraid of wasps/hornets, and it would be like me refusing to accept a can of Raid when one gets in the house! (fyi, when one DOES get inside, I use TWO cans of Raid, one in each hand, Wild West style!)



Sounds like she finally changed her mind at least :thumbsup:

Stress_Test said:

That does not compute


I mean, it's a tool that would relieve her fear, and she makes fun of it and wouldn't carry one?

I'm afraid of wasps/hornets, and it would be like me refusing to accept a can of Raid when one gets in the house! (fyi, when one DOES get inside, I use TWO cans of Raid, one in each hand, Wild West style!)

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Oh, but if you saw my house (inside and outside) you would understand why she doesn't feel she needs a light on her...we've got a night light in literally every other outlet in every room in the house.. and our outside lights are enough to light up the neighborhood.

As you can imagine it is very hard for me to live with the fact that I can walk around my house in the dead of light with no flashlight and see perfectly fine...very sad. :sigh: Of course, I grab one anyway and pretend I need it....

Hmm, sounds like she's only a power failure away from total panic.

Maybe time to throw the main breaker??

Not that I would endorse such a thing, heh heh heh

leukos said:

My wife carries a knife and light because she got tired of always asking for mine!

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I bought my wife a Fenix E01 when they first came out in 2008.
I gave her a pink Victorinox Classic SD for Christmas last year.

She hooked the rings of the light and the SAK together and now carries the pair in her pocket every day, and feels lost if she forgets them.

She also has an original Victorinox Minichamp that I gave her that she keeps in her purse.

I imagine when she sees the purple iTP A3 EOS she's getting for Christmas, those two will be mated up and then she'll have a dilemma....which pair to EDC and which pair goes in the purse