Travelling with Tools

I just thought I'd give folks a little taste of what work travel is like for me.



I'm typically rolling into an airport with my computer bag (with some vitals for travel: Bose QC2 headphones and iPod, reading material, earplugs, Advil, melotonin caps), my clothing bag (EMS conversion pack), and my travel-worn 1620 Pelican Case. I've become a huge fan of Pelican cases: they're incredibly strong (this is after having my first travel tool case destroyed by the airlines), the pullout handle and rollers work great, and they look totally badass-milspec.

One downside, though, is that I end up loading it to capacity--77 pounds on this trip. But it amuses me that even on the far side of the baggage carousel, I can recognize my case coming out of the chute: ka-thump. ka-thump. ka-thump. KA-WHAM. ka-thump. ka-thump. I feel really sorry for whatever bag my case lands on. I also have to pay extra ($25-50) because it is an overweight bag--I have started leaving my collection of HEAVY tags on, to see if the checkin counter folks bother adding another tag.

Another downside is that because it is full of metal parts and looks scary, black, and milspec, I get a TSA inspection tag on literally every trip. I was collecting a sheaf of tags for my own amusement for a while.

So anyway, what's inside this beast?



On a typical trip: an assortment of hand tools, a Conterra chest-mounted tool harness (perfect for crawling around attics), cordless drill, telco punchdown tool, cable stapler, caulk gun, several parts boxes, multimeter with various probes, soldering iron, kneepads. This trip's added load: a cordless impact driver and charger, hammer drill for making holes in concrete, masonry bits, spare datalogger, Delmhorst wood moisture meter, infrared laser thermometer, pry bars, handsaw.

I really wonder if TSA has a WTF moment when they dig through the case. Hey--at least they're not exclaiming, "Jaysus, lady, how many batteries does this thing take?!"

On a mostly unrelated subject (but speaking of travel) I have to say that damn, my friends are incredibly cool. Reading LJ and blogs right now, I see folks in Bali/Indonesia, France, England, China, Italy, and Germany, not to mention Dan B., just back from major world travels.

Buffalo! Woo!

Oh well.