02.3.2011 | 8:52 am
A Note from Fatty: Today’s post is another in the ongoing series of “Short posts during an intense workweek.”
I’m probably the first person to alert you to this fact — and believe me, I take my responsibility of being the first to share important news items very, very seriously — but it’s a darned cold winter. Right now, for example, it’s 6 degrees (fahrenheit), but weather.com tells me it feels like -7. And who am I to argue with Weather.com?
What does this mean? It means that, in order to avoid completely losing my mind due to inactivity, I’m riding the rollers. A lot.
And so is The Runner (except she rides a trainer, not rollers). A lot.
And we watch a lot of movies and television to distract us from the fact that we are riding our bikes in our bedroom and not going anywhere.
Here’s the problem, though: when you’ve got a set of rollers going, the noise is so loud you can’t hear what’s going on on the TV. Add a trainer to the mix and you may as well be watching a silent movie for all the dialogue you can hear.
Why I Love My Sennheiser RS 140 Wireless Headphones
For years, I got around the “I can’t hear anything” by wearing corded headphones. This was a terrifying solution, mostly because I have an excellent imagination and could easily imagine myself getting the cord wrapped caught in the wheel, wrapping it — in the space of 0.001 second — around the front axle about forty times, which would then suck me into aforementioned wheel and grind off my nose.
All while making a fearful racket.
So I tried a few different kinds of wireless headphones. Never with great results. Until, in autumn 2009, I bought the Sennheiser RS 140 headphones (which have subsequently been replaced with this newer model).
(Full Disclosure: I bought these headphones on amazon.com. I got no special deal on these headphones.)
They were kind of expensive, but they’ve turned out to be worth it for the following reasons:
- No-brainer charging. The “rack” you sit the headphones on when you’re not using them charges the headphones, so I’ve never gone to use them and found the battery dead.
- They sound great. There’s no lag at all, and very little buzziness. Note that there is some buzziness, and these would not be great headphones for listening to hi-fi music. But considering the background noise I’m generating, the slight buzz from the headphones is no problem at all.
- They’re adjustable. There are controls on the headset to adjust the volume and the L/R balance.
- You can have multiple headsets going at once. For Christmas, I bought The Runner a second headphone set — but not another transmitter. So now we can both put on headsets when we ride nowhere at the same time.
- They keep working. I’ve had a lot of sets of headphones over the years, and it seems that they never last long. These ones have been going strong since Autumn 2009. And they don’t even smell bad! OK, I lied, they smell pretty bad, actually.
What I Don’t Love
Really, there’s only one thing I don’t like about my wireless headphones. And that’s the fact that from time to time I remember that I look like this:
Which, you know, kind of makes me think I look like this guy:
But I guess I can live with looking like Lobot’s nerdier, less-high-tech brother when I’m on the rollers. It’s a small price to pay for being able to make biking nowhere for yet another cold, miserable day just a little less unbearable.
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02.1.2011 | 8:42 am
I’m in the second day of a busy workweek (a consolidation week, for those of you [ie, my mom] who are interested in what I do for a living). Which means I don’t have much in the way of leisure time right now. Which means I don’t get to write as much as I’d like.
But there are a few things I definitely want to say. Briefly. If, in fact, I can be brief. Which I doubt.
Get Yer FatCyclist Gear Today. Cheap.
My good friends at Twin Six are kicking off a four-day sale today, with everything throughout the store going for truly ridiculous prices.
And by “ridiculous,” I of course mean “cheap.”
It’s worth browsing the whole site to find great deals, but allow me to recommend a few particular Fat Cyclist items that you may have passed on in the past.
First, the Fat Cyclist Wool Trainer. I love mine, and wear it often enough that should I ever be kidnapped, it would be the single best clothing item police should give to bloodhounds to sniff before searching for me.
The thing is, that wool trainer is normally pretty pricey. $190. Right now, though, it’s $99.00. So if you ever wanted one but just couldn’t make yourself spend that kind of money on a non-Assos item, get one today. Cuz once these are gone, we aren’t making more.
Next, if you haven’t got yourself a Fat Cyclist windshell, that’s discounted from $95.00 to $45.00. Women’s bibs are down from $90 to $40. And men’s hoodies as well as women’s hoodies are down from $40 to $25. And all the Fat Cyclist t-shirts are down from $22 to $16.00.
Thing is, with these prices, none of these things are going to make it through the day. So if you want some Fatty gear (and Twin Six clothes) cheap, you might want to get right on it.
Vote For Me. And My Sister. And Ree.
I talk about my (numerous) superpowers pretty often. The thing is, though, most of these superpowers are fake. Yes, it’s true. They’re just rhetorical devices. Hyperbole, even.
I’ll give you a moment to wrap your mind around that.
OK, now that you’re ready to continue, I will say that I do actually have two superpowers. One of them is the ability to eat more than you think I can. The other is to ask people to do things.
The first superpower isn’t all that useful; it mostly just means that I have to keep buying larger and larger superhero costumes.
The second superpower, though. Well, that’s a different story. It’s pretty powerful. I’m proud to say, though, I — mostly — use this power for good. Today, though, it’s all about me. Well, me and my sister and a friend of mine .
Yes, that’s right. I’m about to (once again) ask you to do some Bloggies voting.
This time, it really comes as a surprise, though. While I did ask you to nominate some friends of mine, I didn’t expect to get any nominations for myself.
But apparently, a bunch of you went and nominated me for the “LIfetime Achievement” blog award anyway.
Seriously, thank you for that.
And the thing is, with me hoping to get a “Best of Fatty” book and the Caretaker’s Companion off the ground, it would not hurt my credibility at all to be able to claim a Lifetime Achievement award when I go pitching myself to folks.
Meanwhile, my sister Jodi (Pistols and Popcorn) got nominated for Best Parenting Weblog, and my friend Ree of Pioneer Woman got nominated for practically everything.
So please, do me a favor and vote for me and my sister. And get your friends to. And so forth. Here’s what you do.
- Go to http://2011.bloggi.es/ .
- Scroll down to “Lifetime Achievement” (it’s way toward the bottom) and select me.
- Scroll up to “Best Parenting Weblog” and select Pistols & Popcorn.
- Scroll all over the place and select “The Pioneer Woman.”
- Hey, go ahead and vote for other folks. Why not?
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and type the weird reCaptcha words.
- Enter your email address.
- Submit your nomination
- Check your email and click the link to verify your vote.
- Yay, this has ten steps.
Thanks tons. I promise, I’ll only ask you to do this like fifteen more times this month and then I’m done asking for stuff for me.
Until, I mean, I need something from you again.
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