Boredom Be Gone

Well, I'm excited to report that my waterproof headphone/iPad solution worked great this morning. I had a few issues with it that should be easy to fix, but I'm really quite excited that this seems a solution to my terminal swimming workout boredom. I only talked about this a little bit yesterday, but I wanted to show you exactly how it works.

A while back, I saw a Groupon for this waterproof pouch for an iPhone. It seemed like a good deal, although I wasn't entirely sure how we'd use such a thing. I got one for Mike too, and then in David Letterman style asked Mike, "Is it anything?" We weren't sure. But then Mike built on the whole idea when he gave me some waterproof headphones for Christmas. 

I'll have to say I was a little worried about immersing my iPhone in water, and so I tested out the waterproof pouch last night by inserting some tissue inside, sealing it up, and then immersing it in water overnight.

When I took it out this morning, the tissue was absolutely dry.

So, here is a link to the case that I have, and here's how it looks when it's all put together. 

With some determination, it's possible to operate all the phone buttons, including the touchscreen, through the plastic cover. There is a jack inside the case that plugs into the phone. Then the phone is inserted into the pouch. (Jack first works best and keeps the cord out of the way of the waterproof seal of the pouch.)

Once you've got the phone inside the pouch, simply seal the waterproof closure and then plug your waterproof headphones into the back of the pouch. Here's a link to the headphones I have.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the only way to attach the whole thing to your body is to stuff it down the front of your swimsuit. Surprisingly, that worked fine, and it was hardly noticeable. It was also comfortable that way. And then...I went swimming! And it worked! Hallelujah!

I have been a lap swimmer since I was 8 years old. Of course, back then I was on the swim team, which was its own reward. Now that I'm all grown up and don't look forward to hanging with my teammates, lap swimming has become a much more boring routine. I love lap swimming as a form of exercise, but I have yearned for decades for some sort of waterproof device that would give me something to listen to. I am so happy to have lived long enough to see such an invention. 

So here are the issues I had with it:

1. The cord for the headphones was kind of "swimming" (sorry) around and getting in my way. I solved that problem by threading it under my swimsuit strap, and that worked just fine.

2. The earbuds didn't completely prevent water from seeping into my ears. With water in my ears, it was a little hard to hear my book. I like these headphones because they have customizable earbuds. I chose a size that felt comfortable in my ears, but I'm going to try a larger size next time and see if I can get a more water-tight fit.

3. The whole apparatus was pretty distracting, which made it hard for me to pay attention to the book. I was so in awe of the fact that I could actually be swimming while listening that I was paying more attention to how ultra-cool I was rather than listening to the story. I think that problem will solve itself once I get more accustomed to with the whole thing.

There was another woman there today who had a different MP3 device. Hers was tiny...no larger than a book of matches. She felt the downside of hers was that it was a hassle to access the iTunes store, and that an iPhone made that problem easier to deal with. She experienced the same water-in-the-ears problem I did. Nevertheless, she said she was using hers for the fourth time, and felt that she'd had the best day yet. That was encouraging to me on the "distraction" front.

So, there you go. A modern miracle. "Reading" while swimming. Who would have thought it possible?

After I'd finished my workout, I went to the grocery store, and I'm just about to go get back to work on my doll quilt. I didn't want to close, however, without linking up to:

Today's theme is "Machine Applique" and it seems a perfect time to link up to a fusible machine applique tutorial I wrote as a part of the "Quilting Secrets Blog Hop" way back on New Year's Day, 2013. You can find my post right here.

Finally, it's the last day to link up to the last NewFO Challenge. Don't miss out. You can find the linky party right here. Winner announced tomorrow.