Remember to Check Your Batteries

This morning I was contorted under the kitchen sink doing a couple of repairs when I grabbed a screwdriver out of the tool bag with one hand and picked up my flashlight with the other hand.  The screwdriver worked fine.  The flashlight didn't.  I had to un-contort my aging carcass and go find some batteries so I would have a prayer of seeing what I was doing under the sink.

Lesson learned: while it wasn't a big deal that the flashlight didn't work this morning (on second thought it was a pretty big deal getting myself under the sink, back out to get batteries, back under, then back out again), if this had been a critical emergency I would have been in trouble.  If there had been a stranger creeping through my house and I pulled my pistol in one hand and an unworking flashlight in the other, clicking away at the button and not only giving my position away but not being able to illuminate the person...well things could have ended badly.

Immediately after finishing the repair project I proceeded to:

• check the batteries in the flashlights in each of the bedrooms
• check the batteries in the flashlights in each of the vehicles
• check the batteries in the flashlights/headlamps in my BOB/outdoor gear bags
• check the batteries in the flashlight in the garage
• check the batteries in my emergency radio
• check the batteries in the smoke detectors
• check the batteries in the CO detector

...and then went to the store and stocked up on more batteries.