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Been on vacation for the last 9 days. Go back to work tomorrow.
Over the course of my vacation I wound up pillaging some stuff from my get home / emergency overnight bag - partly because we went camping and I wound up needing some of the items, because we forgot to bring certain things (like spare clothes for me) and some cold medicine for my wife.
So I tore it down to the components tonight, repacked it, and checked everything. Glad I did because I discovered that one of my flashlights had a battery that imploded (corroded, actually but imploded sounds cooler). I wound up having to beat the dissolving battery out with a wooden punch and a hammer - lucky for me the head and tail cap both came off leaving the aluminum tube open on both ends!
There are still some things I want to add / expand, things to change out given that we're rapidly heading into fall and the nights are now down into the 40's, instead of 60's or 70's.
One of the things I removed was my ferro rod & striker. I have a cheapy $5 that in a fit of stupidity I thought would work. It didn't. I pulled these out on the camping trip just to practice with them - only to discover that the ferro rod was pretty much garbage (had some damn coating on it that kept it from throwing decent spark) and the striker was beyond garbage - it wouldn't work and I wound up having to use the blade of my EDC knife to throw sparks. My all weather, strike anywhere matches are missing for some reason - so I need to replace those. I'll be adding another lighter to the pack as well, and probably some vasoline soaked cotton or other easy light fire starters.
Still need to beef up my first aid kit - right now I've got some gauze, medical tape, bandages, antibiotic ointment, cold meds, ibuprofen, and burn cream. Bare essentials for minor wounds - I'd like to beef this up and add more gauze, a tourniquet, and some pressure bandages - things that can treat more serious wounds.
I have pillaged my food stuffs - this bag lives in the tow truck with me and I keep granola or protein bars and foil packed tuna in it for emergency snack foods / dinner - I want to add more food to the pack - probably more foil tuna, protien bars, and maybe stripped MRE components or something for a little more variety and calories.
You may notice 4 flashlights - a cheap small one lives clipped to the outside of the bag for quick access, the 5.11 pen light and Mini Mag LED live in an outside zipper pocket. The big maglite which used to be the general truck working light found it's way into my bag to stop it from rolling around the cab, I threw in the belt ring so I can easily carry it on my belt for fast access in case I need to hoof it home. 2 D cell maglight gives off a usable amount of light, but makes one hell of an impact weapon too. I also wear a flashlight on my person - I don't think you can ever have too much available light sources and there's always a task that pops up that needs a good flashlight.
Clothing wise - I have a full change of work type clothes - pants, socks (3 pairs xtra), boxers, t-shirt, and a short sleeve button down work shirt. There's also a set of rain pants in there, and a fleece vest goes into the bag as well, but it's in the laundry right now because I wore the crap out of it camping and it smells of farts, fish, campfire and got all manner of mud, slime, camp food, and rain on it. Good times! I think I'm going to throw a spare ball cap or brimmed hat in the pack, and a spare set of sunglasses and non-tinted safety glasses as well.
I've also got two maps in my pack - one regional, and one Oregon road map that I sliced and diced up into three sections so I don't have to unfold a whole big road map if I need to see where I'm at and how to get where I'm trying to go.
Over the course of my vacation I wound up pillaging some stuff from my get home / emergency overnight bag - partly because we went camping and I wound up needing some of the items, because we forgot to bring certain things (like spare clothes for me) and some cold medicine for my wife.
So I tore it down to the components tonight, repacked it, and checked everything. Glad I did because I discovered that one of my flashlights had a battery that imploded (corroded, actually but imploded sounds cooler). I wound up having to beat the dissolving battery out with a wooden punch and a hammer - lucky for me the head and tail cap both came off leaving the aluminum tube open on both ends!
There are still some things I want to add / expand, things to change out given that we're rapidly heading into fall and the nights are now down into the 40's, instead of 60's or 70's.
One of the things I removed was my ferro rod & striker. I have a cheapy $5 that in a fit of stupidity I thought would work. It didn't. I pulled these out on the camping trip just to practice with them - only to discover that the ferro rod was pretty much garbage (had some damn coating on it that kept it from throwing decent spark) and the striker was beyond garbage - it wouldn't work and I wound up having to use the blade of my EDC knife to throw sparks. My all weather, strike anywhere matches are missing for some reason - so I need to replace those. I'll be adding another lighter to the pack as well, and probably some vasoline soaked cotton or other easy light fire starters.
Still need to beef up my first aid kit - right now I've got some gauze, medical tape, bandages, antibiotic ointment, cold meds, ibuprofen, and burn cream. Bare essentials for minor wounds - I'd like to beef this up and add more gauze, a tourniquet, and some pressure bandages - things that can treat more serious wounds.
I have pillaged my food stuffs - this bag lives in the tow truck with me and I keep granola or protein bars and foil packed tuna in it for emergency snack foods / dinner - I want to add more food to the pack - probably more foil tuna, protien bars, and maybe stripped MRE components or something for a little more variety and calories.
You may notice 4 flashlights - a cheap small one lives clipped to the outside of the bag for quick access, the 5.11 pen light and Mini Mag LED live in an outside zipper pocket. The big maglite which used to be the general truck working light found it's way into my bag to stop it from rolling around the cab, I threw in the belt ring so I can easily carry it on my belt for fast access in case I need to hoof it home. 2 D cell maglight gives off a usable amount of light, but makes one hell of an impact weapon too. I also wear a flashlight on my person - I don't think you can ever have too much available light sources and there's always a task that pops up that needs a good flashlight.
Clothing wise - I have a full change of work type clothes - pants, socks (3 pairs xtra), boxers, t-shirt, and a short sleeve button down work shirt. There's also a set of rain pants in there, and a fleece vest goes into the bag as well, but it's in the laundry right now because I wore the crap out of it camping and it smells of farts, fish, campfire and got all manner of mud, slime, camp food, and rain on it. Good times! I think I'm going to throw a spare ball cap or brimmed hat in the pack, and a spare set of sunglasses and non-tinted safety glasses as well.
I've also got two maps in my pack - one regional, and one Oregon road map that I sliced and diced up into three sections so I don't have to unfold a whole big road map if I need to see where I'm at and how to get where I'm trying to go.