New Lights and Trick or Treating

I love to review products... most of the time any way.  Oh there are times when the chocolate, the kit, the book, the product isn't good and I feel like I've wasted my time or potentially harmed myself (my family) by using it but those negatives are far less than the positive encounters I've had over the decade that I've been reviewing things semi-professionally.  As you might guess from my name I run a not so little group called The Chocolate Cult where we test, report on, and discuss all things related to chocolate in any form.  What you might not know is that I did book reviews and products reviews for private bookstores and a range of online sites for around 15 years now.

MG390 Pieces

I'm also a lifetime member of a cooking club where I've reviewed several items by using them in my own kitchen.  That club now uses a site called StuffStuff and I recently reviewed a non-kitchen item for them the Wireless UltraBright Spotlight Item MB390 from Mr. Beams.  I don't want to use the Butt-Kicking site though for just plain old reviews but I do want to use these reviews to talk about other issues where they apply.  In this case how outdoor lighting can be a way to empower yourself, protect yourself, and welcome/protect guests.

Putting this up required a bit more time and effort than the product blurb and the package itself suggested.  The directions didn't list all of the tools you need (drill, people, drill, and how many women have these?) nor how to measure the mounting platform before you start drilling in or screwing it in (you need to measure and mark it first or you'll be making an unnecessary mess).  Not everyone -- male or female -- simply knows these things about home improvements or installing anything outdoors.  It is entirely possible that someone who doesn't keep a drill at home (power not hand worked best for me) would get this, struggle to put it up with only a screwdriver, and then give up and just add this light to other easy kits and gadgets they've bought but found more challenging than they wanted. It does take batteries, four D-cells, so make sure you have these before you install as well.

I've had it installed near our front door now for about three weeks and it is still working.  You can move it so that the motion sensor comes on at a range of distance and front a range of directions.  Try it out then lock it in place.  With two physicists in my house we were able to figure this out quickly and it hasn't needed adjustments.  It come on when you are about half-way up the driveway or at least by the time you are at the end of the steps that lead to the walkway to our front door.  It is bright and that's great because this way I can leave the light by the door off and allow it to only work when needed.

I wanted to talk about Halloween which was last night but a severe high wind storm threat resulted in the city postponing official trick or treating hours until tonight, Friday, November 1, 2013, so I'll update this after the kids come and report on how well it worked. They better come, look at all the candy we have waiting for them!

And they did!  180 trick or treaters in total at our place.  The light stayed off as long as we had the other lights on and were out there but once we turned them on the motion detector went off as the door closed and then turned off after about 30 seconds.  Worked great!