Archived in 2022

Originally posted on 18 Aug 2009

I’ll be camping this weekend so I’ve started preparing for that. From the last camping trip I know that the batteries are dead in my headlamp. This morning I dug around in my gear trying to find the darn thing but my searches kept coming up empty.

“The hell with this. I need a headlamp. I don’t have time to waste. QED: I’m buying a new one.”

Today at lunch I went to REI{.broken_link} to pick up a new headlamp.

Intentions for this trip:

  • high-speed
  • low-drag
  • grab cheapest headlamp and
  • get the heck out

Reality for this trip:

  • long
  • expensive

The cheap but plenty effective $20 Petzl lamp was eschewed in favor of a swanky $65 model (“Oooh! Built-in red filter!”). Added to the tab were…

  • A hiking map for the area where we’re camping
  • A flip-top for my SIGG bottle
  • A 10 liter water skin
  • Uber-strong bug spray
  • Tick tweezers

My $20 shopping trip ended up setting me back $145. Let’s hear it for the healing power of impulse purchases on the sagging economy. Oy…