Dec 10, 2009

EDC

EDC. If you do a quick google for it, the official definition is "Expected Date of Confinement", which translates to "delivery date"... So it must be when the new parents can expect to be confined to parenting for a sentence of not less than eighteen years.

But that's not what it means on the forums I frequent.

No, in my world, EDC means Every Day Carry. The things I always have in my pockets or on my person, because life without them would be less pleasant. Of course, the list changes slightly based on what I'm wearing or where I'm going, but here's the usual:

- cell phone
- Fisher Space Pen (compact and doesn't leak, writes anywhere anywhen)
- five or ten bucks in loose bills
- lip balm of some kind (Burt's Bees or Cherry Chapstick)
- wallet, containing licenses (CCW/hunting/driving), ATM/credit cards, and some emergency cash
- a small pad of paper, currently a Moleskine softbound 3x5
- keyring with more keys than I care to think about
- Leatherman Serac S2 LED penlight
- folding pocketknife, currently a SOG Twitch II (lost it today, need to find!)
- Leatherman tool of some flavor
- pistol with reload (currently the Bersa .380, looking at new options)

If I'm wearing a jacket of some kind, it's a safe bet that I have yet another knife and some nitrile gloves floating around too. If I were a true gentleman, I'd have a lighter of some kind on there - probably a Zippo, because they have class. But I don't smoke and see no need to encourage it in others. Not to mention Zippo fuel makes my leg itchy. There's a lighter in the truck (Bic) and that'll have to do when I need flame.

That's it. Every day I'm out and about, those things are on or around my person somewhere. No towel, because I am not quite a hoopy frood, but I've found them to be the bare minimum to survive in a relatively civilized society.

Now, when I go hunting, the list changes, because the needs when hunting change. I'm no longer in civilized society, I'm in the big bad nasty woods, and there are Lions And Tigers And Bears Oh My. The pistol becomes a .44Spl stoked with hot handloads, there's usually a chunk of 550 cord, a couple energy bars, a Surefire G2L, a fixed-blade hunting knife, a Buck 110, couple zip ties, a Bic lighter and so forth.

So, what's in your pockets?

3 comments:

Bob S. said...

Let's see:

Gerber STL pocket knife
couple bucks in change & ones
bic lighter
Asthma Inhaleer
flash drive (2)
glass cleaning cloth
Wallet
Comb
Pistol (no reload - note buy spare mag)
Cell phone
Watch

elmo iscariot said...

- Wallet with cards and cash
- Yeoman Swiss Army Knife*
- Bandana
- Kent comb
- Small Rhodia notebook
- Pen
- "Pocket" knife

On workdays, the pen is a Parker 51, because I have a shirt pocket to carry it in. The old girl's 62 years old and going strong. On weekends, I swap her for a less sexy but more sturdy Lamy 4-function pen.

The pocket knife is either a Spyderco Caly 3, or a small Bark River fixed blade, pocketed sheath and all. Incidentally, the Caly 3 broke me of knife collecting--Spyderco dropped the ball by making the world's most perfet knife, removing all desire for any new ones. ;)

I'm currently waiting for an NJ pistol permit to come in so that I can pick up the Ruger LCP I'll be carrying out of state. If I carry a reload for it, it'll very likely go in a multitool pouch on my belt.


[* - The slimmest one made that still has both a corkscrew, a phillips driver, and scissors. Out of production and hard to find, but I stumbled into one at a local BSA supplier.]

Anonymous said...

Spyderco Endura or Victorinox Hunter or and occasionally and Leatherman Wave
Cellphone
Surefire G2
Keyring with:
-Victorinox Escort SAK
-Photon microlight
-brass match safe with NATO matches, striker, and vaseline-soaked cotton ball firestarter
-whistle
-compass
-pen