It's summertime, it's Friday, the sun has conquered the haze. This afternoon I plan on going to the beach, to join my 3-year-old cousin, who called me first thing this morning to wake me with an unbearably cute "Hey wake up Will! Want to meet me at the beach?" (Not to worry: I double-checked, and the 3-year-old cousin will not be driving herself, and she will have plenty of other cousinly supervision until I arrive.) My cousin, however, is easily bored, and she likes to dance.
So for the beach trip: along with the classic SPF30, cheese, crackers, apples, water and toys, I'm especially excited about a brand new Etón American Red Cross crank powered radio/flashlight/emergency beacon/cellphone and gadget charger. It's a wicked cool toy, but also a good tool, because it's designed to be useful.
Etón makes a whole series of these American Red Cross emergency/non-emergency centers. They're all crank and solar powered, which is efficient, eco-friendly, and energy-saving, but mostly just useful. Part of the profits from the whole series are donated to the American Red Cross, as well, which gives these radios probably the best karma of any toy in my beach-bag. I'm a fan of the FR500 Solarlink, which, just to re-state, functions as an AM/FM, shortwave, and NOAA weather radio, a cellphone and gadget charger, an emergency beacon, a flashlight, and an alarm clock. It can be powered by solar, hand-crank, AC adapter or batteries, and it's small and light enough to carry around without being a pain, although it's bigger than the FR150 micro-version, which is small enough to stick in a glovebox or the side pocket of a backpack.
And a glovebox or backpack would be a good place to stow one of these crank powered flashlight radios, which would pretty much single-handedly replace whatever sort of emergency-preparedness kit you have going on now. In fact, wrap it up with a blanket, a bottle of wine and some slim jims and stick it in your trunk, and all of a sudden breaking down on some dark desert highway doesn't seem like such a bad time. Especially if you're easily bored, or like to dance.
Add comment