Rickk
01-08-2002, 08:42 PM
I remember the post by guys that said they had a hard time keeping their feet warm,...it usta be my problem too but between doing things to help my peripheral circulation and discovering felt lined boots. It not been much of a problem anymore, but back a while, I got some electric socks,..they "sorta" worked,..but I was going broke buying the D cell batteries that they need,...so I found another type,..these had a 6 volt lantern dry cell with wires comming up to the battery pack on your belt. Also instead of a small strip on the toes,...this had a pad of heating wires on the whole front of the foot. Worked better but still expensive to replace those batteries. So I "figured" why not get one of those very small motocycle batteries and I can charge it overnite for the next day,..some of them are not much bigger than a cig pack,..after some experimenting ,.my plan was to get a sealed box (in case it tipped over) and ran wires out the side and sealed them with silicone etc,..with my "experiments" I found out that you could make these socks SMOKE if you turned them on for more than about 15 seconds,..(higher voltage, more amps) buts thats OK,..ever try to heat up your feet when they are really cold? takes a LOT of heat to do it,..so my plan was to have connectors to HOLD together for about ten seconds at a time,..what for a minute, and do it again if need,..THIS worked well! Guys laughed, but I had toasty warm feet and was happy! Well my friend Roger had the same problem with cold feet,..but he is a perfectionist and a general fussbudget,...he got the stuff and made his own,.."HIS was bettttter",... HE had a plastic box like mine to hold the battery but HE had put the whole thing in a beautiful polished wooden box with a brass handle and a toggle switch instead of me holding the (purposely) non joining connectors,..So very so often he would flick the switch on,..time it, and switch it off (today they have electronics that can switch things off) but this was easier,..so it was early on a cold and blustery day,..we usually set up and then have a coffee while we work on all the other tons of stuff we bring,..(tents,crosscountry skis, spotting scopes, heater chairs, fish finders,grill, etc,etc,..so we still have a sled full of things,..his fancy battery box is on top of all this on the sled,..well he flicked his toggle switch on,..waited the normal time but at this time big gust of wind hits us knocking stuff around,.he grabs for something and knocks his coffee all over our stuff (the juice is still connected to his socks and the clock is ticking) He trys to collect things and mop up the coffee as it will be frozen in a while, but he is still forgetting about his socks,..again,..this heating should only be seconds,...In a moment that can only be described as something you might see in a 3 Stooges movie,.I look at Roger (he has a bagle in his mouth) and I see his eyes get really bugeyed. he reaches for the fancy box and knocks it over between some heavy stuff on the sled,...more seconds tick away as he trys to get it,..by this time he is doing a sixties dance the name I don't remember but it looks like you are dancing on a hot frying pan,..he has bitten though his bagle by now and trying desperately to get to that box,.more seconds go by,..and a roar speads out over the ice,.muffled a bit by the bagle...he can see the box but can get to it easily because we had things lashed togeter pretty tightly,.he grabs a small ice bar that we bring to dig in the tent stakes that we used in them days,..and trys to smash the box,..(it took him a few more seconds to remember that these wires were not all that strong and if you pulled on them hard enough they could be broken,.the roar is now a high pitched siren,.not sure what happened to the bagle reminant but it may have been inhaled or blown across the ice ,...the few other people on the ice are all looking our way,. he finally pulls the wires out,.(after pretty much ruining his fancy box) and he runs to the nearest hole and trys to jamb his oversized foot in the hole,..(doesn't take the tipup out) finally gets it in,...but he has to wait for the water to get to the toes and there is the matter of the other foot that is smoking too,..but in trying to get his foot out to put the other foot in,..his drowned foot gets stuck for several seconds as he is yelling like a wildman,..he gets his foot out and (rationality is long gone) runs to yet another hole about 20 feet way and submerges the other foot,..all this happened in a very short time,..so short that myself and the other guy with us probably didn't more more than a few feet and fankly were stunned and not completly clear to what in the heck was happening,..this wouldn't be as funny if he had any lasting damage,..but other than a few small blisters he was OK,..I wished we had a video of it,..every time the other guy and myself try to describe it to someone (usually at a get- together that we all are at) We can hardly get through the story without laughing so hard that we have to mop up tears,..he pretty much smashed up the fancy box trying to disarm it with the ice bar and ruined two tipups trying to put his foot into the same hole,..his feet were blisered and now waterlogged and he had a long walk back to the truck,..despite what some bumper stickers say,.sometimes a bad day of fishing is WORSE than a good (or even bad) day at work,. and somedays its "##### AND high water"