\nIt is a little weird that a Hawaiian company, famous for making casual shoes designed to be kicked off at a moment\u2019s notice, has made some very nice cold weather boots. After several years of searching, and failing, to find a solid pair of boots to get me from October to March, I finally decided to splurge and give these a shot.<\/p>\n
A wise choice!<\/p>\n
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Super comfortable, great looking, warm enough, and with the bonus of being water resistant. I thought the \u201cnatural distressing\u201d was unnecessary and cheesy, but the effect is pretty minimal. And once you\u2019ve worn them a couple weeks, those factory scuffs blend right into whatever wear and tear you\u2019ve put on them yourself.<\/p>\n
Where the cheaper options I tried the past couple winters failed because they were either poorly constructed or uncomfortable to the point I couldn\u2019t wear them, these have been one of the best things I\u2019ve purchased in the last six months. And they seem like they\u2019ll hold up so I won\u2019t have to worry about replacing them for at least a couple more years.<\/p>\n
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The Bridge<\/a> This is a near perfect radio station, at least for my tastes. The best internet radio option I\u2019ve found since WOXY.com<\/a> died nearly 15 years ago. If I owned a radio station, I bet my playlist would have around 90% similarity to what my KC homies spin. Here\u2019s what they\u2019ve played while I\u2019ve been typing this post up:<\/p>\n Bluesky<\/a> Bluesky isn\u2019t perfect, and there are still a lot of accounts I followed at the old place for years that need to come over. But it sure is better than what the Tech Toddler turned the old place into.[1]<\/a> The auto-muting of idiots is a wonderful feature. I\u2019m sure the Nazis, wingnuts, and trolls will figure out a way to ruin it eventually, or some asshole billionaire will buy it to appease our Beloved Leader. For now, though, it\u2019s where I spend most of my social media time. Which, to be honest, is way less time than I was spending four months ago. Another obvious bonus.<\/p>\n
\nI included this Kansas City public radio station in a media post a year or so back, but drifted away from it. However, this past fall I made a major switch in how I listen to music when I\u2019m in the house. Where my default in the kitchen used to be either iHeart Radio\u2019s Classic American Top 40 station or a Spotify playlist, I\u2019ve switched to exclusively streaming The Bridge. Now I leave it on our kitchen speaker most of the day, saving Spotify for other parts of the house and driving.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/IMG_0396-139x300.jpeg\")
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\nI created a Bluesky account right after the platform publicly launched, but never used it for more than a few moments before this past fall. Then there was a flood of folks migrating from the service I had been using for 15+ years, led by several prominent NBA writers. Over about six weeks I split time between the two services. By January, I was only launching the Bird app during KU games or if someone sent me a link. I\u2019ve now cut out the KU game connection, so rarely checking out what is going in that cesspool.<\/p>\n
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