Club 109 camping trip

Lights: Ra Clicky 100wwCT, Ra Twisty 70Tr, ZebraLight H30-Q5, StreamLight ProPoly 4AA Lux, AmondoTech N30, Garrity 2D incandescent

Went camping in San Simeon with Ian, Katie, Brian, and Tia. There wasn't a whole lot of light usage really, but I had a few observations. The 100wwCT was my main light (as usual) and handled all of my getting around and looking for stuff. It also lit up the whole area when I had to chase some raccoons. Its tint was also good for checking out the cooking meat. The Twisty with 19670 tube was basically left on red the whole night, so that it could be found when left sitting around outside and then as a night light in the tent. Some of the others discovered that the Zebra H30 was very good for rolling bits of shrubbery into a combustible tube. I think the H30 ended up being Ian's favorite of the night, he used it for everything. The N30 HID was fun just for blasting light into the sky, but it had no real usage. I gave Tia the ProPoly to use while getting ready for bed. And of course the star of the show was the blue plastic Garrity 2d incan, which had impressive throw for its low output. It was obviously the coolest and most classic light present.

Leak in the ceiling

Contributed by Sam
Light: Ra Clicky 170Cn

Last night, Regina noticed a leak in her bathroom ceiling. She called up maintenance to have a look; only a preliminary assessment could be made and they'd have to come back with more tools in the morning.

They arrive the next morning, armed with a sawzall and some other equipment. They proceed to cut a hole in the ceiling and realize (drum roll) that they can't see anything! Too dark! "Someone get a flashlight!!" I hear them argue amongst each other.
.. I figure that I will aid them, but only until I see what they bring as a 'flashlight'..... and (drum roll again, please) a red anodized minimag!!! yesss!!!!

OK, so I was kind of excited that these people were trying to actually use a minimag for their work, but a better part of me took over and I prepped my 170CN for maximum output.

I walked in there confidently and said "Here, use this instead." and the guy is like "whoa, that's a flashlight?...yea.. whoa, that's a flashlight.." Yeah..

He looks down at me "how much did this set you back?" I looked up "About $200" ($50 less than what I actually paid) and he nodded and went back to working with it.

I hovered around a while as they worked and as they finished he said "Wow, we should get the department to buy us these instead!" I agreed and gave him the ralights.com web address and said they could get a similar light for about $100 which would work well for their duties and could use rechargeable batteries.

Ra Clicky saves the day again!

Searching for bats in the belfry

Light: Ra Clicky 100wwCT

I went to pick up Tia at her house but ended up waiting a while, so I wandered around outside. I heard someone come out of the house, but it was Tia's mom, and she was looking under the house's overhangs with a huge camping style flashlight that cast a very narrow spot of incandescent light. From about 50 feet away, I hit burst on the Clicky and brightly lit up the entire side of the house; she looked around like a plane was landing. When I got there, she explained that she was looking for bats because she'd heard a noise up there the previous night. She went back to looking for them with her big light, so I turned mine on again so she could actually see what was up there clearly. She had a good laugh about how much brighter mine was despite being so much tinier. When Tia came out, she admonished her mother for encouraging me....

Wedding prep

While preparing for her bride's maid role in Ian & Katie's wedding, Tia needed to cut something to put in her shoe. At first I gave her the Benchmade Kulgera, but I thought better of it when I saw her holding it in her tiny hands trying to cut through some kind of thick tape. I took it back and replaced it with the Persistence, which is a more manageable size and better suited to such grunt work. Glad I had both along.