Once you’re well dressed and well fed, you’re all set to go somewhere. You’ll save time, frustration, and effort if you take the following tidbits with you.
Your phone’s camera as memory supplement
You probably think of your cell phone’s camera as a tool for taking pictures. That would be a reasonable assumption.
But truly savvy participants in life treat that thing as a memory supplement. Use it to take temporary pictures, which you’ll consult maybe once before deleting them.
The number of situations when it’s useful to record a scene for temporary reference is staggering; the hard part is just getting into the habit. For example, you should take a picture of:
• The sign over your parking-garage space, so you remember where you left the car
• Something you’re lending to a friend (posed with the friend), so you’ll remember who has it
• Your open refrigerator before you go shopping, so you won’t have to wonder if you’re out of milk, ketchup, bread, or whatever
• The scratches and dents on a car you’re renting, so if they later accuse you of scraping it up, you’ll have evidence to the contrary
• The cable connections behind your computer or TV before unplugging them, so you’ll remember how they went when you reassemble them later. (Useful when you’re moving—or moving just your TV or computer.)
• A taxi’s license (either the license plate or the driver’s license posted inside the cab), so you’ll be able to track down stuff you left behind
• Your valet or coat-check ticket, so you’ll have the number in case you lose it
• Your children at the entrance to the amusement park, so that if you get separated, you can show the security people exactly what they were wearing
• The phone number or Web address on a poster or business card, so you’ll have it for reference later
• Your luggage as you check it at the airport, so you’ll have a picture to show people if it gets lost or damaged
Phone photos are fast and easy to take, cost nothing, and take up very little space. In certain situations, including life, they make the perfect memory supplement.
Teach bike riding by coasting down a hill
From the dawn of two-wheeled civilization, we’ve taught our children to ride a bike the same way: by holding onto the back of their bikes, running frantically beside them, bent over, shouting encouragement.
The problem here is that the poor kid has to learn too many things simultaneously: balancing, pedaling, and steering.
Training wheels have their own problems. They don’t actually teach the hard part—balancing—so they don’t really give much of a head start to the learning process.
There is, in fact, a better way: the grassy-hill method. Ready?
Lower the seat so that your little rider can reach the ground with both feet.
Start partway up a gentle grassy hill. Encourage her simply to lift her feet about an inch—and then coast down the hill. She can use her feet to control her speed if she likes. Repeat a couple of more times, periodically moving higher up the hill. Liberally sprinkle with praise.
See how you’re teaching her first to balance, without having to worry about steering and pedaling?
After a few runs, let her try coasting down the hill with one foot on a pedal. Then two.
Everyone still alive? Finally, she’s ready to try turning the pedals—partway down the hill.
You can probably predict the final steps: Little by little, raise the seat toward its ideal position. Teach starting up from a flat surface (start the pedal at the two o’clock position as you face the bike, where it’s easiest to push down).
And when you’re ready for your first bike ride together, see to it that ice cream is involved.
Get your picnic drinks cold
Ever since the first caveman went to the first company picnic, we’ve been putting ice into picnic coolers to keep our food cool.
That’s fine if the cooler’s contents are meat and cheese. But if it’s drinks, such as soda or beer, you might want that cooler to get cooler. You might want it cold, or even ice cold. And you might want it to get cold fast.
If you simply put ice into the cooler, you’ll be disappointed: It will never get colder than, say, a refrigerator. To be exact, your cooler can never get any colder than the melting point of ice: 32 degrees.
It is possible, though, to get your drinks colder than that—ice cold, as they say, which (according to Michelob) is perfect for beer. The trick is to salt your ice water.
Funny thing about salt: It lowers the freezing temperature of water (from 32 degrees down to about 15), which is why we use it on our sidewalks to melt ice in the winter. Salt water can remain a liquid at lower temperatures than regular water. That’s why you add salt to the ice in an ice cream maker, for example.
So here’s the trick: Dump a cup or two of salt into the cooler; mix it with the ice. Table salt, rock salt, and what’s sold as “ice cream salt” or “sidewalk salt” all work.
The water will quickly become super-cooled, and so will your drinks. That’s partly because of the frigid water, and partly because your bottles or cans are covered in water. If they were in there with ice cubes, not all of the can or bottle would be touching the ice.
(The melted water will be salty, of course—so don’t forget to wipe off your can before putting your lips and tongue on it.)
In any case, this trick can even semi-freeze your soda, making it deliciously slushy. This trick also works great for quick-chilling a watermelon—or a bottle of white wine or Champagne. —Robert Christensen
The right way to use your bike’s gears
After a couple of rides on your new bike, you’ll figure out which direction to move your gearshift lever for higher gears (better power going down hills) and lower ones (easier pedaling up hills).
When you’re at a dead stop, of course, you usually want a lower gear, so that it’s easier to start pedaling forward.
But the only time you can shift a bike’s gears is while it’s moving. So most people shift into the lower gear when the light changes and they start up again. Trouble is, you’re starting off in your previous gear (a high one for high speeds) and trying to shift into a new one from a dead stop. The result is a clacking, wobbly, gear-stressing moment that’s bad for both your bike and your public image.
The best time to shift into a low gear is just before you come to a stop, while you’re still in motion. When you take off again, you’ll find it comfortable and stable, and you’ll look like a pro.
How to read your tablet with sunglasses on
Polarized sunglasses do something weird to iPads and some other tablets: They make its screen appear totally black.
But a funny thing about polarization: It blocks glare in only one dimension. In other words, if you turn your iPad 90 degrees (so it’s wider than tall), the image returns!
Stores that don’t require return receipts
From the beginning of time, visitors to physical stores have been told, “Save your receipt in case you need to return it!”
But we live in the modern, advanced, digital age! Surely a store’s computer can remember what we bought.
And sure enough: The truly enlightened store chains are happy to accept a return or an exchange without your having to bring the receipt.
For your shopping reference, here’s what happens at the most enlightened big-name stores when you return an item without the receipt:
• Ann Taylor. Store credit.
• Apple. Full refund.
• Banana Republic. Store credit.
• Best Buy. Store credit.
• Costco. Full refund.
• CVS. Store credit.
• Home Depot. If you used a credit card, full refund; if cash, store credit.
• Kohl’s. Store credit.
• Lands’ End. Store credit.
• Lowe’s. If you used a credit card, full refund; if cash, store credit.
• Macy’s. If you used a credit card, full refund; if cash, store credit.
• Office Depot. Store credit, and no returns of electronics.
• Radio Shack. If you used a credit card, full refund; if cash, store credit.
• Staples. Store credit.
• Target. Store credit.
• T.J.Maxx. Store credit.
• Walgreens. Store credit.
• Walmart. Cash if under $25, store credit (gift card) if over $25.
Note that your opportunity to return stuff usually expires after 2 weeks, a month, or 90 days, depending on the store—so decide you’re unhappy fast.
What you need to know about extended warranties
Extended warranties are almost never worth buying.
That’s the conclusion of Consumer Reports, which has been tracking product failure rates and extended-warranty programs for years.
When you pay extra to extend the warranty period on your car, phone, washer, fridge, or microwave, you’re placing a bet that it will fail. But they almost never do—and when they do, it usually happens within the original warranty period (for example, the first year you own it).
Still, 40 percent of refrigerator buyers spring for the extended warranty, a victim of emotion and salesperson pressure. (The salespeople usually get a commission for selling you these warranties.) The emotion in question is guilt: You’re afraid that if the machine does break when it’s out of warranty, you’ll feel terrible that you didn’t get the extended warranty when you had the chance.
There are a few exceptions: used cars, for example, and extended warranties on mobile gadgets (like laptops and phones) that cover everything, including loss and dropping.
In general, though, extended warranties are a waste of money.
Shift your credit card due date
If you’re a loyal consumer soldier, you pay off your credit card bill every month. You’re probably used to paying it off whenever the card company says it’s due—maybe the 12th of the month, or the 20th, or whatever.
But did you know that the monthly due date is up to you?
You might want to shift it to the first of the month, to make it easier to remember. Or you might want to shift your Visa card so its due date is separated farther from your AmEx due date. Or maybe you want them all due on the same date, for simplicity.
All you have to do is ask. Call the credit card company’s customer-service number and tell them the date you want; it shall be yours. —Sara Solnick
Next time you need to find the customer-service number or email address for some company, don’t waste time on its Web site. That’s a recipe for frustration; a lot of companies bury their contact information or leave it out altogether.
Instead, just Google it. Search for “netgear support” or “avis customer service email” or “mcdonalds 800 number,” for example. You’ll be shocked at how easy it is to find this information this way.
Or visit www.contacthelp.com. It’s a free Web site that maintains an up-to-date database of the customer-service contact information of the world’s companies: email, phone, Web site, hours of operation, and so on.
