Safety First, People!

As someone who both drives a car and walks the dog, I'm aware how invisible a pedestrian is in the dark for a driver. When you're out walking at night, your eyes adjust so well it's easy to think no one could possibly miss seeing you. When you think about it, pretty much everyone knows that you really need reflectors, but it's still easy to forget that it's not so much that you're difficult to spot without them - it's that you really are invisible. I recently bought a reflector spray I thought sounded interesting, and tried it on a few things while I was packing for this trip. I took some things outside, laid them on the ground and sprayed sort of randomly (it was late, cold and windy, and I had lots left to do).

The spray is nearly invisible, things get a slight gray sheen but you pretty much have to look for it to notice it. Now, I only used it on red, black, gray and yellow surfaces, so I can't guarantee what it looks like on something white (there is white lettering on part of the harness, but it's plastic so I'm not sure it's comparable to a white jacket for example). But on the things you see below, you mostly can't tell it's there. So I took a photo using flash, since I couldn't tell if the spray was working at all. Judge for yourselves:

Dog's black jacket (with a white reflector band), red shoes with gray details, black and yellow harness (with a white reflector strip), and black leather leash.

Well, I'm impressed! My plan after seeing the photo was to spray my jacket, gloves and hat, and all the dog equipment - to start with! However, I am who I am, and lost the spray bottle along the way up here... It's on the list of what I'm buying again, though, and I'm recommending it to everyone! They also had a spray for textiles and fur(!), designed to be washed (or brushed?) away when you get back home, but I preferred the permanent version - I won't spray Monster with it though!


(But it doesn't hurt to wear regular reflectors too!)