some humming and hawing

Next year, we are moving.

The purpose of this move is to get closer to work and to get more space for our family. The closer to work bit will mean that I can get back on the bicycle again on a daily basis. Currently, I am stuck driving, and it is driving me nuts.

My city commuter bicycle is mostly dead. It has been through several winters and is a bit rough around the edges. I am thinking of just making it a winter bicycle and leaving it at that.

So, in an effort to get something classy and urban, I turn to Opus.

Opus bicycles, out of Quebec, perhaps more than any bicycles we sell at the shop, gets the urban bicycle concept right.

This means I must get an Opus bicycle.

Opus has come up with a bicycle which ticks all of my happy city boxes in one swipe.

This bicycle is the Opus Case i3 and is new for this year. It has fenders, a chromoly steel frame, a three speed internal hub, a chain guard, and mounts for racks etc.

It is the closest thing to my old CCM 3-speed I used to ride to school on when I was a teenager and CCM still made a good bicycle.

It is inexpensive, and awesome.

I would love it with a porteur basket on the front.

to tech or not to tech, it is not even a question

For giggles, I went on every phone carrier's webpage tonight (in Canada) to look at smartphones.

I left not impressed.

They are all horrendously overpriced (especially Apple - what a joke).
They all look exactly the same.
There are effectively two operating systems, both of which suck on so many levels.
All of them appear overly delicate.
None of them are even remotely more appealing than my current Sony.

Except one...

the not boring Sonim xp7

Well look at that.  A phone for the real world. It is inexpensive, has a real battery, can be dropped, runs what may be the best version of android yet (4.4), is waterproof, and is not a bloody boring rectangle.

If I dropped it while mountain biking, it would likely survive.

Anyway, I am starting to wonder about the do it all device and how smart that is to have anyway. It is far too easy to end up a slave to the technology and have tech for tech's sake.

Tech for tech's sake is getting old.

All I want is a tough phone which works.

I have a real computer for computer stuff. A real camera for camera stuff.

Why do I need a do it all device that really does little perfectly?