That’s about the time I tell them to use the flashlight app on their phone.
Lol I love this thread. I always brought extra flashlights to a campout. Then I wait until it gets pitch dark and somehow Im the only one out of 6 people that have a flashlight. So I bring out 7 flashlights and let them borrow a light of their choice. Some people just dont get the value of a good light. Phone lights are just so useless in most cases.
My nexus 4 puts out maybe 50 lumens, peanuts compared to any flashlight i own but in many real life situations far more then enough.
Ha, funny you should say that. I was taking a pic of my dog not too long ago in low light and I said to a friend “I wonder how this pic will look, my phone has 2 flashes with different tints” - I got the “wtf you on about” look - again
A couple of weeks ago, our power went out for a few hours in the evening. I happily brought out half a dozen lights - you know, just in case the first five suddenly died.
My wife took one look at me trying to appear casual as I bounced my Acebeam K40m off the ceiling, and said “You’re so pleased with yourself, aren’t you?”
I so was.
lol
Yeah, that’s where we would part ways. I don’t let any screaming septic children near any of my goodies, let alone let them “play” with any, and certainly not ’til they just lose ’em. Don’t care even if it’s a throwaway light.
Hell, I don’t let many adults near my goodies. They’re almost as bad.
That’s disrespectful in the extreme of other peoples’ property. Just reading about it rankles me.
I’m assuming those classes weren’t for reading comprehension?
Wow…
Wellp, they’d probably be the mountain lion’s dinner. 
Seriously, I think anyone who thinks those 3×AAA LED lights qualify as “flashlights” should be poked in the eyes repeatedly ’til they learn otherwise.
Yep I think we’ve all been there before.
As a parent leader for my sons boy scout troop, they are always asking for a flashlight or at least batteries. Seems unfathomable to me and the more experienced scouts… but it happens every time. We’re a dozen miles out in the rough and they have no light. As part of their self reliance training though we are not supposed to bail them out unless there is a safety concern. So… the answer is NO you can not borrow my flashlight. Its fun watching them struggle to prepare food and set up their tents in the dark. They learn real quick though and its the last time they go out without a flashlight or headlamp.
Could be a nice side-business, selling before the Big ’Un comes around…
(edit: Forgot to add, that at that point they have ZERO excuse.)
Like here, whenever there’s a snowstorm announced, there’s always a huge run on shovels, salt, the usual winter accoutrements. Even the stores/groceries are packed with people panic-buying essentials immediately before, descending like swarms of locusts to pick the shelves clean.
Why?
And this is NYC, not rural Montana. Well, maybe that’s the problem right there, that they get complacent and think that Someone™ will come and bail them out.
But out in the sticks, there’s no excuse to not be prepared.
Me, I got more emergency stuff in my car than most cops/RMPs. I preach, but no one listens.
“But… but… mine’s an ATOMIC light!! It’s TACTICAL!!”
Back into the deep-fryer…
“But… but… the Special Forces uses them!! They say so on teevee!!”
Maybe “special” as in “Stop eating the paste!!!”-special.
This is my experience to the T. I work in landscaping. And the crew always crack jokes about me having my flashlight. Usually a ee x6 dd, or a c8 sometimes a tube light. But when we get caught having to finish a job with the short fall winter hours they ask me to shine it here and there. And they are hunched over with cell phone lights. Even the bobcats lights are pitiful to a 1000 lumen flashlight. Always carry a couple spare batteries as well
A few weeks back the outside lights at work went down. No problem, I pulled out my ZL SC5W and made my way to the lab door without mishap. One of the guys who works for me asked about the light, as I was showing it to him one of our techs walked up, saw the light and nodded saying “those are nice lights”.
The next morning he comes over with a small microfiber bag and reveals a Nitecore TM26GT. We preceded to light up some trees across the field behind out building.
Sometimes being recognized as a flashlight guy brings out others in the club.
LMAO my little sk68 that has been really just a test light for over a year now, I thnk I just put the 7th tail switch in it, I've lost count of the boards and emitters. It will smoke any tourch in the building. When the power goes out in the re it is the darkest I believe ive ever seen. It taks aboit 30 seconds for the overhead back up lights to kick in.
I need to take a really hot one and leave it on my tool box til the next power problem. They would think the aliens have come to get them.
That’s a harsh way to educate but it’s also the most effective way- in just one round lies a lesson they will never forget which other things can be built on. It don’t get any better than that :+1: But this is the pitfall of “being the flashlight guy” because most of the borrowers become dependent on you instead of learning a needed lesson 
So after seeing the same faces come by wanting a light again and again , I’ll ‘enhance’ their learning by commenting about that: “Gee, didn’t you learn the last 3 times that you really need to have a working flashlight handy? What if I weren’t here- then what would you do?” 
And if I get a smart-alek response I tell them to go do that and no they can’t borrow a light :smiling_imp:
In the end there are some people who will never learn, some who will get a cheap light which might work when they need it, and a few who will “see the light” and get themselves a decent flashlight. When half of your life isn’t daytime with free reliable light, it’s crazy to not understand the importance of having a good flashlight. Or a dozen of them Perhaps several dozen :person_facepalming:
Be proud you’re a Flashaholic- we are the most brilliant people in the world :sunglasses:
Phil
Well put, i agree.
Its funny how many people will ridicule having a flashlight on me at all times, then take for granted i have a light when needed, though i sometimes use that to my advantage, my nephews like exploring everywhere including dark places, they need light, they are so happy to use mine, when they get a little bigger i will be buying them lights for their own life adventures.
i gave some lumintop worms as gifts this year and everyone liked them. they also asked me to put together some c8’s and s2’s. the best part though was when a girl at work was talking about her husband’s light she got him as a gift, another chimed in and said she should have had me put one together and that “they shine for miles” lolol
I always brag about The Netherlands that there are never any power outages, but last night there was one after all: half of Amsterdam without power for a few hours, and today train schedule mayhem country-wide because of that.
A quarter past four in the night our six-year-old knocked on our bedroom door, he was afraid in the dark and could not sleep. His two night lights were off because of the power-cut.
Last summer I made him a nightlight for our camping trip, a Convoy S3 with BLF-A6 driver and a Prolight PC-amber led (the high voltage of this led prevents currents higher than 1.5A on direct drive), so a new night light was arranged in a minute, running on 5 lumen low. And a small triple with pretty lighted tail was placed next to his bed as an extra comfort and he went happily back to sleep. My girlfriend was really happy for a moment that she hooked a flashlight nerd 
Btw, it did inspire me for another mod, but I have to tinker how to do that: of course these flashlights were li-ion powered and they both are well-built by me and run Panasonics, but the ultimate ultra-safe children nightlight should run on eneloops or even alkalines. I want to make a lighted tail flashlight on standard AA-cells. It has been discussed before how to do the lighted tail on a single AA, but I have not seen it made yet.
LOL as I live around the corner from you, I have experienced the outage too. Suddenly, the WAF of my flashlight habit was much, much better. A good thing because today, one more arrived :). She lost count though, as they’re everywhere in the house . She even uses them without thinking now
NiMH safe shtf lantern style light is a very, very good idea! Do consider trits as locators though; they’re bright enough under those circumstances.
Edit: It wasn’t’t half of Amsterdam, it was the whole of it and a part of Zaanstad. Some 460K households. The only things that kept working were the bloody parking machines
Not so much “love” in my case……but, I purchased 2 of these when they were on sale on Amazon back before Christmas for less than $10 (might have even been $6)….
http://www.thorfiredirect.com/ThorFire-LED-Rechargeable-Camping-Lantern-Emergency-Tent-Light-Lamp-Water-Resistant-with-Magnet-and-Hook-Hiking-Jogging-Outdoor-p-128.html
I’m sure my wife was wondering what the heck I was going. Since I could only order one per account, I even asked my brother to order one and if he didn’t want it, I’d take it and pay him (which is how I have 2).
We all got together at a cabin over the holidays and there were several lights not working at the cabin. The most significant in the this case being the overhead light at the oven/stove. That was a bit of an inconvenience for my mother (and myself as well admittedly) so I hopped upstairs to my bags and pulled one of these out. The magnetic back held it just fine to the surface above and now we had light to cook more easily by! I’m pretty sure i even heard my sis-in-law (the wife of the brother who didn’t want the one I asked him to order) say something to the effect of “we should get one of those!”.
The other one served very well in low mode as a sort of night-light so our children could see how to get to us at night if they needed us.
(not to mention my sis-in-law borrowing my EDC to walk their dog at night).