Unusual (But Awesome!) Christmas Gifts for the Savvy Woman
Whether or not you believe Christmas music can be played before or after Thanksgiving, we can no longer deny it …
We are now in the midst of the Christmas gift-buying season!
Being a very functionally minded female, I wanted to give you all MY picks for great gifts to give the savvy woman. These are items that will not only relieve anxiety for the what ifs of life, but will also empower the owner to take matters into her own hands rather than rely on the help of others in a crisis.
First on my list is a compact car jump starter. (Stop laughing at me. This is actually a great idea!)
And I mean very little!
How do I know it is that easy? Because I did finally get the chance to use it when my daughter’s alternator died. Not just easy. Easy peezy. This, coming from a woman whose dad tried to teach her the right way to jump start a car (while attaching it to another with cables--so old fashioned!), as he put it, without blowing it up! Nearly frightened me to death. From that point on, I viewed the innards under the hood as a ticking time bomb rarely to be opened.
But no more. I now have the power to jump start my car without even involving another motorist. I love it!
Click this link for the model I have …
But you may find some others that work just as well.
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Next on the Great Gifts for the Savvy Woman list …
A portable air compressor for car tires.
Don’t judge me. I actually do know … now.
This used to be one of those things I’d tell my husband about so HE could take care of it. I personally hate going to those gas-station machines you put a bunch of quarters in and then are supposed to pump all four of your tires (cuz the little warning light doesn’t tell you which needs air) to just the right pressure before the timed-air stops pumping, only to feed the machine more quarters (cuz you always have lots of change handy) to finish the job in the same panic you started it in. Also, I could never read the gauges well enough to know how much air was needed. Even my husband had difficulty with this. We had a bad gauge once and wondered why our trip to Pennsylvania seemed particularly sensitive to every crack in the asphalt. It turned out the tires he’d tried to pump before the trip to the recommended 33psi actually contained as much as 70.
Ouch! We are just glad the rubber didn’t blow.
Now, we no longer go to the gas station. We no longer search for quarters to feed the long-hosed beast. And we no longer need to trust the little doo-hicky that seemed to want to lie.
Instead, we take out our trusty portable air compressor, plug it into the cigarette lighter of a running car, set the pressure to the number needed, and pump the tires until it stops. We don’t even need to leave the parking lot of our townhome community.
Sigghhhhhh!
This has been a godsend because it seems I am always on trips without my husband when my tires become a major problem. One time, it happened in the mountains of North Carolina as I wondered why the car was wobbling down roads so steep they had runaway truck ramps on either side. Another time, it happened in West Virginia when I had my car packed to the gills with moving items from my mother’s house and my special needs son sitting beside me. Both of these times, I’d had to rely on the kindness of strange men who happened to be present at the moment. Well that’s great if the word strange only refers to the fact that you don’t know them.
It’s not as pleasant if he’s just strange.
Either way, it’s much more efficient to have a compressor available to you. You take it out and hook it up and you’re good to go.
Here's a link to the one we have. Just make sure you get one that uses psi (pounds per square inch) and not kg/cm2. I accidentally got the kg/cm2. No worries, though. I found a conversion site online and stuck labels on the compressor with the kg/cm2 numbers for the tires of each car model we own. Now, I no longer need to consult the inside of the car door at all. It's right on the compressor.
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Lastly, since this article seems to be all about cars, try this one …
A four-way cross wrench. Bet you can't wait to wrap it.
(I know your scoffing now. Stop it!!! Just listen ... er ... or read, that is.)
Here’s another little story …
It was late at night, my colleague and I were leaving our office building that was pretty much otherwise shut down. We usually wait until both of us have started our cars and are moving toward the exit before we head out and drive home. My colleague drove up and stepped out of his car, peering at the side of it. I got out of mine to see what had taken his attention. It was a flat. Not the kind that could be helped with a compressor. More the kind that needed a change.
He opened his trunk and we prepared to do a chore neither of us had ever done before. We got to the part where you use the provided tire iron to loosen the lug nuts. It was one of those long, bent ones that usually come with the vehicle. My colleague leaned and leaned on it, but the nuts did not budge. Along came this dude in a big truck who offered to help. We accepted. He pulled out his own tools. A four-way wrench was the one that caught my eye.
What’s so great about a four-way wrench? You can push it from two directions at the same time.
This guy attached his wrench to the appropriate place, pushed on one side, pulled on the other, and the crazy nut moved. Once it got loose, he spun the thing until the nut fell off. What a difference from what I’d seen my dad do in the past.
I now have one of these tools in the backseat of my car.
Why not put it in the trunk? Because if I ever get stuck in a dark alley, the four-way cross wrench doubles as a means of defense. It’s really heavy!
Who needs nunchucks?!
Find one here. The wrench, not the nunchucks.
So those are MY recommendations for great gifts for the savvy woman. Not quite the baubles of yesteryear are they?
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