Kevin D. Hendricks's Blog, page 5

Vegas 2023

Abby and I took a trip to Las Vegas over fall break to see U2. I’m not a fan of the spectacle of Vegas, so we opted for the spectacle of nature. We stayed at an Airbnb with goats in the yard, which kind of set the vibe for this wacky Vegas trip.

U2

If anyone knows how to create spectacle, it’s U2. It was fun to see what they did with the canvas of the Sphere, with basically a giant, wrap around screen. It’s interesting that the stage itself was spartan (though the surface...

Parktober 2023

Back in late September and early October I tried to hit up some state parks for another Parktober adventure. Hitting five state parks on this trip means I have only 13 of 66 Minnesota State Parks left to visit.

Cuyuna & Banning

I blew off work on a Friday in hopes of getting to Cuyuna Country Recreation Area for some incredible mountain biking. Unfortunately, the rain didn’t cooperate. Still a gorgeous place though.

With the weather, I gave up on biking and drove across the s...

Oberlin Visit: To Ohio!

Back in August, Lexi and I took a trip to Oberlin, Ohio for a college visit. It’s a long drive to Ohio, so we spent an extra day seeing what there was to see.

Touring Oberlin was interesting, though it’s not one of Lexi’s top choices. The sight seeing was more notable. On the way home, we took a detour through Milwaukee for Washington County Pride to see some family (ignored some religious bigot protestors and grabbed some gorgeous artwork by Rae Senarighi—check out their store).

Moun...

2023 Colorado Vacation

I’m a bit behind in detailing our vacation exploits. Back in June we took a family vacation to Colorado, with a stop in Kansas to see family. With both kids teenagers with jobs, we had to scale things back this year and keep it simple.

We stayed at an Airbnb between Denver and Boulder and spent several days checking out the sights. We did some shopping (The Shop at Matter bookstore was a favorite), saw something like 50 deer at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal wildlife drive, and Lexi made some gr...

Quitting a Book is OK

I repeat this mantra often, and it’s especially true when I’ve been in a reading slump. I just saw it summarized nicely by Angela Whited, the community sales coordinator and storyteller at Red Balloon Bookshop:

Whited also revealed another secret about reading more books: If a book is boring, she’ll quit.

I’ve always struggled with that idea. Quitting a book feels like defeat. I started it. Why not finish it?

But those books are a grind and the process feels arduous and less enjoyable....

Period Products Overflowing on My Porch

My porch is piled with pads, tampons, and other period products. Nearly every day another box comes in the mail or another bag of supplies is left at the door.

Why: It’s all part of the Women of West St. Paul Pad Drive my wife is helping to organize.

They’re going big for the fifth anniversary of their pad drive, working to raise $10,000 in products and donations. They’re nearly there.Why Period Products? Because the need is great. Period poverty impacts 14 million people and results...

Library Advisory Committee Meeting

Last week I chaired a meeting of the Dakota County Library Advisory Committee. Since joining the committee in 2019, we’ve had exactly one member of the public attend our meetings and no one has ever spoken during the public comments.

Last week an estimated 150 people attended our meeting, with more waiting outside, and 37 people spoke (including half a dozen teens) before we cut off the comment period. Local news was filming as well (though I haven’t seen a story run yet).

Running that kin...

100 Books So Far in 2023

I’ve now read 100 books so far this year.

Even though I read a ton, this is only the eighth time I’ve read more than 100 books in a year.

And for the piles of books that evokes, my reading has slowed to a crawl. Back in April I was talking about how many books I’d read. I was kind of amazed myself at how I was getting through so many. But reality set in:

January: 25February: 23March: 30April: 17May: 4

I share this for the sake of transparency and to remind myself t...

Little Free Library

We finally installed our new Little Free Library. We commissioned Lori Greene of Mosaic on a Stick to create the mosaic and we’re really proud of it (Psst… you can support Lori through Patreon). So reminiscent of Alma Thomas. Love it.

We have a huge stack of books to keep it stocked (plus some stickers and other goodies). I’ve heard from other locals with Little Free Libraries, so I’m curious to see how this little adventure goes.

Yay for books!

Reading Like Mad in 2023

I’m on some kind of wild reading binge in 2023. Last year, I read 87 books the entire year. This year? 87 books as of yesterday.

Reading a lot of books is no big surprise for me.

But this is quite the start to a year of reading.

So what happened? Why am I so into books this year? And how am I possibly making it happen? I’ve written a whole book on this topic, but I can share a few thoughts about what’s different this year.

Beating the slump: First, I’ve been in a reading slump ...