I would suggest that your wife and cat are pretty normal. There are one or two people here that can relate to everything you have said. If you find that cure please dont tell me as I would go looney without out my dailey dose of reality .
Wow, what wonderful responses, all of you! I am humbled and you have made me feel quite warm and welcome (maybe i need to beef up my heat sink?). So the real cure, I’m gathering, is to hang out with those who share the experience. That appeases the guilt and provides shelter from the unen-Light-ened ones (blind leading the blind?). And can 4,000 BLFers really be wrong?
Thanks for letting me in the door, everyone, and let there be light!
(Now I just have to take care of my computer, iPad-iPod-Android tablet, laptop, bicycle, telescope, musician, and audio-video addictions and I’l be in good shape!)
I reckon after you’ve bought your 40th flashlight or so the impulse to but the next greatest one is diminished somewhat .
Of course this figure will vary from one person to another. I know it’s true for me
This is one hobby that is useful above many others.
Compare it to miniature train collections, stamps, Micro machines, spoons, cards- the list goes on.
We are usually surfing the cutting edge of new technology for our hobby, using a useful medium (light at night) and stretching the boundaries of performance and function.
There are few hobbies where you can participate at the leading edge and still afford it.
Don’t fight, give in, and enjoy.
All we addicts can’t be wrong!
That said, helps to know of a good Divorce Lawyer in town……
I have wayyy more than I need to use, and there are a LARGE proportion that do not even get used anymore. With all that in mind, especially after working out how much I’ve spent so far !!!, I can say that the result is one of a change of perspective. I don’t end up with the feeling of needing to stop buying torches, or anything along the lines of that, but the feeling of - How can I make BETTER purchases in the future.
I end up looking at what torches I do have, which ones I really like, and then looking for new torches that fit these refined criteria. I won’t be buying every new thing that looks somewhat cool, its more a case of quality over quantity. I must warn you however, that although frequency does go down significantly, Total expenditure keeps going up!
For example, for the purpose of hands free lighting, headlamps, The zebra light/ spark headlamps are the top tier models, and at $90-120 each, way out of budget! So I used normal torches on a headstrap (so that it could still be used as a normal torch (double use from 1 torch!), starting with with existing AA torches, from the $3 Police light, up to the more recent sunwayman C10A (awesome for headlight use with the soft button), but then I looked to dedicated headlights because they are lighter and more floody (better for headlamps). The ultra fire headlamp was a budget headlamp, but it just wasn’t perfect with PWM and a difficult to use ramping mode system. By now, total expenditure was WAY beyond a zebra light anyway, but I never actually bought one.
Last week (6-12ths later) I got my H600w Zebralight headlamp and this thing is significantly nicer on all criteria! But what happens in the end? Ive bought the out-of budget light in the end, but Ive also bought all the other torches along the way in an effort to save money for this “hobby”.
What is the take home message? - Expect to be buying everything and spending more than you expect to. And I don’t think of my self as an impulse buyer, It still takes me months of reading/comparing/searching before I actually commit to buy.
So how do you cure it? - As suggested above, death works pretty well… alternatively, just buy the perfect torch… :party: