Kevin D. Hendricks's Blog, page 9

Dressember 2021

I made it. 31 days of wearing ties, the entire month of December, to support Dressember and their efforts to fight human trafficking.

As of this writing, I’ve raised over $900. Thank you!

You can donate here to add to that total.

Difficult to Hear

I said at the beginning that it’s dumb we’re still talking about human trafficking in 2021. Throughout this month I’ve earned an appreciation for just how difficult of a topic it is. Nobody wants to talk about modern day slavery.

B...

Rally for Trans Kids in Hastings

I went to the Rally for Trans Kids in Hastings today, in response to the bigoted hate poured out on Hastings school board member Kelsey Waits and her family by a ‘concerned parents’ group in the community. The group outed Waits’ 8-year-old trans child and has created an environment so hostile the family doesn’t feel safe and had to move.

Waits said it best in an MPR interview:

“Transgender kids are the most at-risk kids in our schools for suicide. Almost 50 percent of transgender students ...

Spotify Wrapped: My Year in Music

So Spotify does this clever thing where they look at your listening stats and spit out a bunch of fun data. Unfortunately, they do it in this goofy app experience that’s pretty awful. But I pulled out the fun bits…

I listened to 43,344 minutes of music (more than 90% of users), accounting for 2,358 different artists, and 166 different genres.

Supposedly my top five genres are indie pop, ska, stomp and holler, bubble grunge, permanent wave. (I don’t know what half those words mean.)

...

Dressember: Help Fight Human Trafficking

I’m dressing up every day in December to fight human trafficking as a part of Dressember. Please consider making a donation to support my efforts.

It’s dumb that slavery is something we still have to talk about in 2021. But it impacts something like 45 million people worldwide, and disproportionately impacts children, women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and foster kids—basically the vulnerable.

That’s hard to stomach. The whole topic of human trafficking is pretty gruesome. It’s a...

Robert Street Underpass on the River-to-River Greenway Trail

The River-to-River Greenway through West St. Paul is now complete with the Robert Street underpass. This post has been a long time coming. I could have written it two months ago, but I’ve been busy. Also, I wrote my first post supporting this project back in 2017. And the effort to support this crossing goes back much further, to real plans around 2010 and big ideas around 2000.

Yeah, 20 years.

Sometimes progress is slow.

And when I got involved in 2017 we thought this would be a...

Parktober: North & South Minnesota

I took two weekends in October for solo trips to Minnesota State Parks, first venturing to the far northern edge of the state and then going to the southwest corner. With apologies to a friend with a family tradition of state park trips in October, we’ll dub this my Parktober experience.

I’m a big fan of the fall—the changing colors, the crisp air, the lack of bugs. It’s a wonderous time to get outside and explore. I also like checking out parks I haven’t been to, trying to find something new...

School Board Elections Matter

A school board candidate threatened me with a slander lawsuit last week. I guess that’s part of community news now? (See my update at the bottom of this post for more.)

But let’s not focus on him. (My conversation on race with the only person of color still running is a much better story to focus on.)

Big election on Tuesday—lots of school boards at stake. Hope you’re ready to vote.

I put together a voter’s guide and candidate chart for the nine candidates vying for three seats in my sc...

Turning on the Heat 2021

I turned on the heat today. 37 degrees outside, 63 degrees inside. It’s supposed to be cloudy today and not get warmer than 48, so it’s about time. Plus, my parents are visiting and making them sleep in an unheated basement is just mean.

We’ve had a few days here and there, but this feels like we’re entering the first uninterrupted stretch of real fall weather.

2021: October 22 (inside temp: 63)2020: October 16 (inside temp: 61)2019: October 5 (inside temp: 52)2018: October 1 (inside temp...

Barely Contained Rage

I am seething with barely contained rage.

1. Trump

I think it sparked with Trump. Not Trump himself, because there will always be terrible people, but the reaction to Trump. The way once good-hearted peopled shrugged and embraced this hate-spewing narcissist because he wrapped himself in the flag and a veneer of faith so thin it was transparent. But they’d rather have a hypocritical faith that fueled their thirst for power than a real faith that threatened that power. It’s not the lib...

2021 Rocky Mountain Vacation

The summer of vacation continued in August with a trip just me and the kids to Colorado. We met my parents for a few days in Estes Park, by way of South Dakota, then came home through Kansas for a couple days.

These family trips are always quicker than you want, but there were some great moments.

South DakotaFalls Park in Sioux Falls

We drove across Minnesota (stopping at Schmidt’s Bakery in St. James for donuts… very solid) to South Dakota with stops at Falls Park in Sioux Fall...