Daily Preparedness Tip: Make Sure Your Gear Works

There is a park behind my house.  It's a good sized place which is usually pretty quite.  While having coffee on our upstairs deck yesterday I noticed a bicycle parked next to a tree and some feet sticking out from the side of the tree.  Probably a homeless guy taking a nap.  So we left for the day and came back in the evening when it was already dark.  I wanted to make sure the guy had either left or at least changed positions so I would know he wasn't dead so I picked up a flashlight...and found that the range of the flashlight was significantly shorter than the distance to the tree.  So I got a better flashlight out of my vehicle and had the same problem.  Apparently I have only needed flashlights to see things close up in the dark and not things at a distance.  Needless to say, a very bright light is now on my shopping list.  FWIW the guy was gone this morning.