Abstract: An umbrella with a carrying strap retractable interiorly of the umbrella's handle to a storage position when use of the strap is not desired, and extendable exteriorly of the handle into a use position when it is desired to carry the umbrella with aid of the strap.

Abstract: A manually usable hand tool having, in preferred form, a frame of substantially rectangular closed loop configuration. Squeegee and ice scraper blades are fixed to one frame end, and a brush is fixed to an adjacent frame side. A handle is pivotally connected to the frame, and is movable between a storage position generally co-extensive with the other frame side and an extended position directed away from the closed loop frame and generally co-axial with the frame's longitudinal axis. The handle and the frame are grippable together by a user if desired upon use of the hand tool when the handle is in the storage position and, alternatively, the handle is grippable alone by a user if desired upon use of the hand tool when the handle is in the extended position.

Abstract: A case having at least one wheel mounted adjacent the case's floor, that wheel being retractable interiorly of the case into a storage position and extendable exteriorly of the case below the floor where the case can roll on the wheel. One feature is that a retract operator connected to the wheel is manually movable in one of generally parallel and normal directions relative to the floor in order to retract the wheel into the storage position, and a separate extend operator also connected to the wheel is manually movable in the other of the generally parallel and normally directions relative to the floor in order to extend the wheel into the use position. Another feature is that a single spring motor is connected with both the retract and extend operator in order to continually bias both those operators toward one of each operator's first and second operational positions.

Abstract: An umbrella in which at least a portion of the cover's peripheral edge is shirred. This shirred edge portion is stretched to a greater length when the umbrella is open and contracted to a lesser length when the umbrella is collapsed, thereby providing a taut appearance to the cover when the umbrella is open in the dome-shaped configuration. This invention is particularly useful when the cover is fabricated from a single piece of material, i.e., when the cover is not comprised of separate gores stitched together.

Abstract: An exerciser that includes a stretchable tension member connected to an adjuster mechanism which permits the tension member's length to be varied as desired by the user. The adjuster mechanism, in preferred form, includes a housing that defines a cavity open through a port to atmosphere. A free end of the tension member is looped around a latch pin within the cavity, both ends of the loop extending through the housing's port. The latch pin, which is accessible to a user from exteriorly of the housing, is movable within the cavity away from the port when it is desired to adjust the tension member's length, and is movable within the cavity toward the port when it is desired to lock the tension member at the desired length. The cavity includes wedge shaped interior walls that flare away from the port, and that cooperate with the pin and the tension member's looped end, to establish the locking position of that looped end.

Abstract: An alarm system that signals when one or more credit cards are absent from a card stack in the case if the system is enabled. In preferred form, a card stack thickness sensor responds to the stack thickness to determine whether all cards are present in the stack. A first signal device (e.g., a buzzer) in a circuit that includes a single sensor switch operated by the card stack thickness sensor informs the case's owner when not all cards are present if the circuit is enables. A second signal device (e.g., one or more of the cards, or a separate flag) that is projectable from and retractable into the case's interior is operated by a circuit enabling switch, this switch being manually controlled for enabling the circuit when the case is to be stored (the second signal device being disabled, i.e.