Night vision monocular

[fresh_prince]

When I first bought a night vision monocular, I wasn't completely convinced I needed it. It felt like one of those purchases that was going to spend most of its life sitting on a shelf while I occasionally pointed at it and justified the cost to myself. Then real life started giving it jobs. The first was hog activity on the property. Instead of guessing what was moving around out there, I could actually see what was going on.

A while later, something kept showing up along the tree line for a couple of nights. Without the monocular, I'd have been left staring into the dark and inventing theories. With it, I got answers instead of guesses. Then there was the night a vehicle came down my driveway around midnight, stopped for no obvious reason and sat there long enough to get my attention. Being able to observe without lighting up the area or walking out into the unknown was worth a lot more than I would have thought when I bought the thing.

Funny how that works.

A lot of gear feels unnecessary right up until the moment you need the exact thing it does. I still laugh when I think about how quickly I labeled it overkill. Most of the time, that's just a word we use for equipment before we've found the problem it solves. Now it has a permanent spot in my gear cabinet and unlike a few purchases I'd rather not talk about, this one actually earned it

 

[Seaman]

That’s pretty much how most overkill gear ends up. It seems unnecessary until the first time it gives you clarity in a situation where you’d otherwise be guessing..and once it proves useful, it stops feeling like a toy and just becomes part of the kit.

 

[Alan]

Another angle is that most gear only earns respect after it solves a problem you didn’t expect. Until then it just feels optional but experience is what changes that perception.