Digital Camera

I love my digital camera. It's The accessory I must have with me at all times. The dilemma I have is: do I keep the battery in or out? Seriously. If I keep the battery in, it drains faster, of course, but I'm also poised to snap whenever I need to. The flip side is, keeping the battery out conserves the battery, but it also leaves me scrambling when I want to snap a photo.

Case in point: This morning at 6:30 a.m. I came upon an elderly gentleman, he must've been in his eighties. It's cold and he's at a bus stop waiting. I'm at a signal light waiting, traveling in the opposite direction. He starts doing push ups against a trash can - you know, those rotund cement-like ones. I think "hey, what a shot", but by the time I took the camera out of its case, inserted the battery, waited for it to whir - he'd already stopped.

So suggestions please. What's worked for you?