I learned something new today!

And that new thing is:

Scanning the onscreen QR code with my phone for Amazon returns actually works! I don't have to print out various sizes of the downloaded code in hopes that one of the pictures will satisfy the UPS store scanner! (That has actually been an issue in the past: Sometimes the printed picture of the QR code has been too large or too small---despite my various manipulations to try to make it kosher---and so the store has sent me home.)

The thing is, for the past few months, I've been also doing a QR phone scan for the various returns, but was always too skittish about seemingly "wasting" the UPS store clerks' time by asking them if I'd done the scan right! (What the hell, man! I'm a customer---they're supposed to be pleasant to me!)

At any rate: Today, they weren't very busy, and my favorite nice clerk was there, and, as it turned out, I'd done the phone scan exactly right and now I know how to do it in the future! Yay!

Now, though I never take the bus any more, I'd still like to know how to scan my bus fare from my bank card on my phone; back when I did take the bus years ago and had a physical monthly pass card that was scanned, I'd always see youngsters scanning their bank card from their phone to pay the fare---I wanna learn THIS mystery, as well, just for future reference!

This whole "app learning thing" started a couple of years ago when my apartment complex laundry switched over from swiping your physical bank card in a physical slot on the machine to only using a laundry company app. I, of course, was initially befuddled (having just bought my very first smart phone only a month earlier)---but again, a helpful young person to the rescue! At that time, a nice young guy from the leasing office walked me through every step, and there hasn't been a problem with using it ever since.

Most people in their 50s, like me, have kids or grandkids to help them learn the latest in tech, in the privacy of their homes... But solo-me is quite reliant on the kindness of app-savvy young strangers!

This reminds me also of when I first moved to NYC in 2007: I initially didn't know basic NYC things like how to buy a subway card or how to swipe it, etc. But, as I found out: (1) There's a "system" for everything. Someone before you has been through what you've been through, and they've written it all out somewhere. There is nothing on Earth that has not been experienced before, and that you cannot learn about on at least a very BASIC level via reading instructions (whether that's the Bible or "how to swipe a subway card." (2) More important than words, though: There are always kindly people around who are willing to explain something to you firsthand, if you ask nicely. (Just make sure you ask the right people.)