Light in the Darkness

Friday, March 17, 2017

The Things I Own: small Vornado heater

This is my Vornado heater. I have a long-standing habit of laying down in front of a heater. Soon after adding a second decimal to the number that described my age I started sleeping down in our furnished basement on a sleeping bag with my feet on the front of a dehumidifier. It was nice and warm for my feet. I moved to sleeping in front of of space heater, one of those boxy gray Patton ones that looked like it could catch on fire. I say that because . . . it did. In fact, I was attached to that $20 heater enough to "fix" it for a short while before finally replacing it with this Vornado. Yes, it left burn marks on the inside of it's gray shell and I decided it was too much of a fire hazard.

So now I own this little Vornado. It is a bit expensive for a small heater (~$75) but well worth it for me. It is advertised as having such a powerful fan it pushes the air all around the room and really it works quite well at doing this. It feels like the vent in your house blowing gentle, warm air at you but you can keep it on whenever you want and move it around. This little heater is also quite safe. It has a little button on the bottom that will shut it off if tipped and the grill is pretty tight. Three heat levels. It's a pretty nice heater and keeps me warm.

The Things I Own: Nitecore HC90 headlamp

Of course it can do green also and the red is the only color
I actually use, but I felt like blue for this picture

Anyone who knows me knows I like flashlights. I enjoy being to wield their powerful beams in the darkness and see the water molecules and dust floating in them. I own this headlamp because I thought "I own and have owned many flashlights but never a headlamp. I should get a good one." I didn't think I'd like having one all that much because of the feeling of wearing one, but I can tell you it is great. I would say that this is the best flashlight I own with all features considered. If I were to go into a cave and could only bring one light and the end of the adventure wasn't certain I'd want this one.

First of all you don't have to hold it, given that it's a headlamp. But also you can adjust how bright it is. Sure, the slider can come on somewhat easily on its own, but it's easy enough to just turn back the battery holder so this doesn't happen. All this means is you can make the light dim and the 18650 will last a very long time. This light also has a built in charger, which other lights have. But this one is set apart because it charges via micro usb. If you can charge an Android, you can charge this light. And finally, other than the red light (and green, but who really Needs that?), it is waterproof. How great is all that?

HC90, 'tis the way to go for the ultimate headlamp.