Is that a camping stove plugged into your PC?

 Yesterday I received my new issue of "Popular Mechanics" magazine in the mail and the first thing I love to do when a new issue comes in the mail is thumb through their gadget review section and see if it is anything noteworthy.  Popular Mechanics magazine should really be called something like "the everyday mans magazine because it is amazing how they cover every sort of adventuresome guy stuff from camping, electronics, yard work, automotive, and the list goes on and on.  Very rarely do I get a boring issue and usually there are pages being torn out and saved so I can try them later myself.  This issue though topped them all when they reviewed the "BioLite Camp Stove."  This stove is a game changer in the emergency preparedness area, backpacking, and camping foray. 

The stove is designed with the jet flow technology to circulate air through the fire chamber and uses common sticks as fuel.  Then attached to the side of the stove is a thermoelectric generator that takes the heat and converts it to energy that is regulated at 2 volts of charging output through a USB port on the side.  How freaking awesome is that?  So now your stove burns wood and charges your electronics.  Take this to the diabetes mindset that if you have a USB rechargeable meter and if it goes dead while camping, just make a pot of coffee and charge it.  Then that new T:slim insulin pump has a USB rechargeable battery so if you are camping and your pump goes dead, just make a pot of coffee and recharge it.  This stove is probably the most significant advancement in modern camping technology (OK in my mind at least), and if we push pharmaceutical companies to create USB rechargeable diabetes gadgets we can be more prepared in the wild.

This not the right video but, BioLite has a video on their website that shows you how to use your stove for the first time and you all know about how off the wall things crack me up.  Well, the first thing you are supposed to do when you get your new stove is pug it into your PC, because technically the BioLite stove has a battery in the generator that is what charges your devices and the generator is charging the battery.  Just hearing that you have to plug your camping stove into your PC before you use it cracks me up.  Next we will be buying tents that have built in LED lights that when purchased new we will have to take out of the box and plug it into our computer as well to charge them.  Seems so funny a stove that needs a PC, I can see myself at work with the BioLite cooking me up some coffee plugged in so I have a full charge to go camping that weekend.

Sad news to report that today was the end of the line for MoMo the Beagle.  I had mentioned last week how she was not doing so well and today at 4:30pm Central time the vet said that putting her down was the right thing to do with how bad of an infection she had in her hip.  She was 11 years old and loved being in our family, she will be missed.