Okay, so my wife works in an office building and I gave her a Maglite 2AA LED flashlight to keep in her desk. You know, in case there’s another blackout or an emergency of some kind and the lights go out.
Flashlights come in handy other times as well, such as when one drops a one-of-a-kind fastener on the floor and has to get on their hands and knees to find it.
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In the past few days, two of my wife’s coworkers spotted the flashlight in her desk drawer and made remarks about how unusual it was for her to have one. Huh?! Is keeping a flashlight in an office really that unusual and outlandish?
I’m now tempted to buy my wife a pink RAT Izuka for her desk, you know, as a letter opener, and a 100 foot hank of pink paracord “replacement shoelace” for kicks and giggles.
Maglite 2-AA LED Flashlights via Amazon
george
bet they go to her when the lights go out. i got mags all over the place. wife has two, i got two, cars have one each, house has three. we had a power outage and we had no problems “lighting up” !
Erik
It is perhaps unusual, but I think it’s a great idea. In fact, I’ve taken to carrying my Maratac AAA on my person at all times. I work in the IT field, and hardly a day goes by where I don’t use it at least three or four times. In addition to the Maratac, I carry a Nebo Redline in my “day pack” for those instances when I need a bit more horsepower than the Maratac can give.
Maikeru
I think that it would be useful since in a lot of offices the desk is integrated into the cubicle wall and cannot be removed (unless one carries around a multitool and is highly motivated); if anything falls behind or under the desk it’s easier to use a flashlight than go searching for a desklamp—uncommon with the florescent lighting banks common these days—or groping about blindly.
Personally I’ve got multiple flashlights that use a couple of types of batteries. I’ve got a few pocket lights attached to my keychain like the Photon II that use 2 x CR2032. I’ve got a NiteIze converted MiniMag that uses 2 AA cells in my standard carry bag and a single AA powered NiteCore on a lanyard attached to my photo bag in case I need a light while hiking after dark and traveling light—I also have a red L.E.D. squeeze type light attached to the zipper pull on there as well as it’s good to use when looking through the camera bag since it keeps me from having to make my eyes adjust to a suddenly bright light and then adjust to the darkness. Needless to say these small, efficient flashlights are immensely useful!
Anyway, regarding the ESEE RAT Izula, I believe that it’s probably small enough and simple enough that use of it as a letter opener wouldn’t be so bad. Probably a bit less threatening than the pink Kershaw Leek and a tad less threatening than the relatively harmless looking pink Kershaw Chive:
http://www.kershawknives.com/productdetails.php?id=373&brand=kershaw
http://www.kershawknives.com/productdetails.php?id=371&brand=kershaw
Stuart
Haha, I was kidding about getting her a knife! I checked with her a few months ago and she wasn’t fond of how the Izula looked.
I just think it would be funny to see their reactions when she whips out a fixed blade knife and 100 feet of 550 paracord. Right now the most I could convince her to carry is a mini Mag Solitaire (soon to be replaced with a tiny Fenix) and a Victorinox classic keychain tool.
Mrs. ToolGuyd
Thank goodness you were just kidding. I think I’d cry if you really got me that ugly pink knife. Some things just shouldn’t come in pink.
And I do get good use out of my Victorinox.
BILL FIEGEN
It would be even more useful if she took it out of the package and put the
batteries in. Ever try to open one of those packages in the dark.
Stuart
The one I gave her isn’t still in its clamshell packaging.
Maikeru
I figured that you were joking. Though it is good to hear that she’s got a Vic Classic just in case—it’s a good, reliable little knife and the tweezers can double as an eyeglass screwdriver. I’ve actually one of those in my pocket (I’ve gotten a couple as gifts) as something to use for emergency repairs when in places that like to wand folks—although the scissor spring died and I’ve got a Leatherman Micra on the chain as well, but the rest of the Classic refuses to die (aside from the minor bits of blue-green corrosion that I clean out of the liners along with the lint).
skfarmer
i keep one laying in the top of my tool chest in the shop. my old mini-mags have not seen much use since. i like the maglites even if they are old school. i also got my wife a pink swiss army. she liked it so much she got herself the red white and blue leatherman micro.