Small world.. even for flashaholics

Off-topic Chatter
1

So I decided to sell my dad’s DRY because he’s now using the HD2010, which gives him more simplicity and safety. I listed it on CL and eventually got a reply after renewing a few times. I searched his email address to confirm it’s not spam and the results kind of shocked me. One of the first links was to CPF and I see that his account has something like 2,500 posts and run time graphs dating back to 2004. He hasn’t posted in a while and he told me he hasn’t been in the scene for a few years.

But guess what he brought for comparison? A Solarforce L2T! haha. He actually really likes that light. And this guy has run time graphs on dozens of Fenix, Jetbeam, etc. I guess not everyone over there is brainwashed. I told him I posted on BLF and he said he’s familiar with the origin and the hostility between the forums. Also, he was even impressed with my SK78 (I’m not), haha. Well, he was for the price anyway.

What a small world to come across a fellow flashlight enthusiast here in my Montana town. He was actually buying for a friend.

2

That’s pretty cool. So what did he think of the DRY?

3

:O Hostility? What hostility? :)

I'm always amazed by small world stories like this. I used to travel all over the U.S. on business, 75% of my time was out of office. I can't tell you how many times I've had a small world experience in some remote location.

4

It never fails to amaze me when something like that happens, even though it shouldn’t - the internet has a way of ‘shrinking’ the distance between like-minded folk.

In the pre-interweb days, I was calling on a client in central Florida for some consulting work. They were a digital special-effects startup, and were just starting to attract attention of some more influential customers.

The waiting area’s construction had just been completed, and the wall of bookshelves were populated with thriftstore books to appear ‘full,’ as the owners had not had the time to as yet curate a collection of trade-related publications.

A fairly-thick tome caught my eye, as there was a familiarity to it that I couldn’t pinpoint - then it made me smile; it was the same text used in my highschool Chemistry class, both a lifetime and world away from where we were located. Having gone to school in Western Europe, it was a bit startling to see that the same textbook would have been used locally.

I grabbed the book, more out of nostalgia than anything else, memories drifting back to the long-gone 1980’s and its dubious fashion choices, when I saw something that jarred me back to reality - a piece of carefully-folded paper with some writing on it. My handwriting.

I immediately flipped to the inside front cover, and was shocked to see my name inscribed in one of the spaces reserved for the student to whom the textbook was issued. Feeling as though the air was leaking from the room, I pawed through more of the book, and was greeted by another piece of paper, this one a completed test of chemical reaction equations. It too had my name, signature, and grade (100% :slight_smile: ) from oh-so-long-ago….

I am still dumbfounded as to how this discarded instructional arrived in the same place as I, many years and thousands of miles apart, only to be reunited in the most unlikely of places.

5

I was at an outdoor bar in Key West this winter with my girlfriend she dropped something and we were looking for it with my A30B XML mod light and the waiter came up and said “Holysh!t how many lumens is that?” I said about 800 and he proceeded to pull out a little Surefire 100 lumen light to show us he had read about it on CPF and was a little embarrassed when he said paid close to $100bucks for it. He was so blown away by the little A30B mod light when I told him I could make him one for $30 bucks he immediately took my email address.

6

Nice! Did you invite him to BLF? :)

7

That’s some story, ChicagoX! Did they let you take the book?

8

They did.

9

He was impressed and agreed when I told him the OTF lumens since he measured lights in the past with an integrating sphere. He was also impressed with the compact size. The buyer was certainly impressed as well.

He said he paid almost $200 for his 18650 batteries and Pila charger several years ago.

10

Another small world story…

My (ex) wife and I were on vacation in Thailand. No one knew we were there. We had gone to other places on that trip as well.

Were were staying at the beach near Phuket but decided to go into town 20 miles away as I recall to see the kick boxing matches.

At that point we are in a large arena with some tourists and mainly locals it appeared to me. We were sitting only a few rows back from the ring.

I look up a the entrance to the arena and the business partner of my old boss walks in with the most garish looking hooker in Thailand. Most of them in the area I was in were very attractive and worn dresses in a normal attire.

Not this one. She wasn’t attractive and had on leopard skin everything. I’m sure the guys wife :slight_smile: wouldn’t have approved of the girl or her choice of attire.

He didn’t see me initially and proceeded to sit right in front of my wife and I. I didn’t have the heart to slap him on the back and say hello!

I did notice that when it was time to leave he hung back and waited for us to leave as he had realized who I was by then!

The only thing that I did (for fun) to bust his chops a bit was when I was back in town at work and my old boss called to ask a favor and asked how I was I mentioned that I had been in Thailand on vacation and ran into his partner at a kickboxing match and said to tell him hello. :slight_smile:

Small world!

11

@ChicagoX, that is an amazing tale, loved it.

12

Same here! Absolutely amazing how the universe works. 8)

13

Amazing! Here is one that happened last week. A lady stored a few things in my good neighbors garage & left them for over 3 years. Well, my neighbor asked me if I wanted to look at the stuff & I was welcome to take whatever I wanted. I brought home a brand new slider chair with matching sliding foot stool & a nice 25 inch tv (like new). There was also a very nice (old) chest of drawers that I did not need but brought home anyway & stuck it in my garage. My son stopped by & stated he was going to purchase a new dresser. I told him I had a nice old dresser in the garage he could have. The son took it home & his wife said ‘that looks just like my dresser when I was in high school’. There were 6 drawers of which 5 worked & 1 had not been opened in many years. Upon opening it, lo & behold, she found various personal items inside including home work, a few pieces of jewelry, utility bills in her dad’s name. When she had moved out (about 20 yr ago) her dad put it in the garbage. This dresser had been in the family for several generations but his new wife MADE him throw it away (she later took him to the cleaners). My son said his wife (her dad is now deceased) cried cause this dresser had been dear to her heart & she always wished she had it back! That is not the end of it. There was another dresser in the neighbors garage (that I didn’t bring home) that turned out to be hers as well. She was a very happy woman.

Keith

14

Wow!! that’s cool! 8)

15

Budynabuick, another great one!