Scott Hawaii

I have endorsed flip-flops by Scott before, and just bought myself another pair because the outer sole was wearing thin after a year of constant use. From the tag on the new pair, I was happy to find that it is a Hawaiian brand. It always feels good to buy from local businesses, even if the manufacturing is inevitably off-shore:

Scott Hawaii was founded in 1932, manufacturing plantation boots for the sugar and pineapple workers in Hawaii. During World War II, because of material shortages, production was switched to sandals and flip flops to service the large number of military personnel passing through Pearl Harbor. Since then, we have focused on providing comfortable footwear in Hawaii for locals and tourists alike, as well as those outside Hawaii who embrace our casual island lifestyle. Every pair we make is hand crafted with the best quality and most durable materials available for comfortable, casual footwear.

[on the back:] Made in China

They also have a small website, www.scotthawaii.com, which is worth visiting for the retro flash animation and nice Hawaiian slack key guitar music. The model that I have found at Kmart on Kauai is their men’s Makaha, though only in plain black.

Please note that I am in no way affiliated with Scott Hawaii, I’m just a satisfied customer recommending what seems to be a quality product.

Pink and Blue

I’ve been slowing down with the sunrises, but not for a lack of them. They’re getting earlier and earlier, and I’ve slept through a few good ones. Last Wednesday, it was worth getting up at 6:20 am to catch this one:

You can see 3 bird silhouettes in the sky here, those are the white cattle egrets you see everywhere on Kauai. Now that I’ve lived in this neighborhood for a year and watched them, I think I’ve got them figured out. They roost in the trees on the banks of the Wailua river and Opaekaa stream, I’ve seen them when kayaking there. In the morning, they fly north in groups to the cattle in the fields around Kapaa, and in the evening they go south again to roost.

47 Inches of Rain

The total rain that I measured for the month of March in my backyard rain gauge was 47.04 inches (119.5 cm). That’s more rain than the 44.68 inches (113.5 cm) I measured for the entire year in 2005. Since I never posted that graph, here it is:

The number of sunny days in March could be counted on one hand. On the other hand, we had 4 days with 4 inches (10 cm) of rain, and 2 days with over 7 inches (almost 20 cm) in less than 8 hours. One of those times, the rain gauge overflowed, so the total could be low by an inch or two.