Optimal Light

Many followers of this blog know that I have what some might describe as an obsession with high-quality flashlights. My collection includes about two dozen or so high-end lithium-ion battery-powered LED lights. I keep one of these in my car at all times and today it paid for itself 100 times over. Scheduled for 2 pm today was the concrete pour for the garage foundation walls on the River House. A crew arrived earlier to strip the footing forms and set up the wall forms. Everything was ready according to schedule and all that remained was to pour the concrete. I will spare you the insanely frustrating details and skip forward three and a half hours to when the concrete finally arrives at 5:36 pm. The three-man crew had to wait idle the entire time and two of them had just left to grab some food and coffee when the mixer truck pulled up. Fortunately, they passed it on the road and circled back. I was on site from 4 pm and enjoyed watching golden light develop on the trees across the river from us as the sun began to set. If not for the calming effect of this view, my blood would have been boiling since I knew that sunset was at 5:57 pm. So the concrete arrives and we have 21 minutes to pour the walls before we are in darkness. The crew jumps into action. They work feverishly to get the concrete into the forms finishing by the headlights of the mixer truck. When the truck leaves they pull up a car to illuminate the work zone but it is far from sufficient. This is when my 1000 lumen Nitecore SRT6 flashlight saved the day, or rather extended the daylight. Under its illumination, the crew was able to trim the straightness of the walls, complete the trowel work, install the anchor bolts, and embed the hurricane straps in the concrete. After they left, I used it to see while fine tuning all of the above since these critical steps had been done hastily and not to my standard of execution. Unfortunately, this experience has only increased my appreciation for the value of a great flashlight and will only make it that much easier to justify future such purchases.