Eric Holen

• Had a great time camping this past weekend with friends at Potters Creek on Canyon Lake. Here it is August and it was our first group camping trip of the season. Hoping to squeeze at least one more this year. Even though I wore sun screen, still managed to get burned on my shoulders and knees. Our friends brought out a personal water craft (PWC). Found out that 42 mph is the fastest my mind and heart would allow me to go.
• After a great trip, got home to find out the air conditioning had gone out again and it was 84 degrees in the house. After removing the panel, I confirmed the capacitor that had just been replaced 11 days ago, went bad. I called San Marcos Air Conditioning and they were out in just a few hours to replace the capacitor under warranty. The technician assumes that since we had not been running the AC very much over the weekend, it was a bad unit. He replaced it with two capacitors, one for the motor and another for the compressor, to distribute the load.
• Talking with the AC technician produced one of those “ah ha” moments. When I asked about installing a new AC unit, ours is 7 years old, he stated that they generally start around $7000. That put things into perspective for Yvette and I. While we continue to reduce our debt, we need to start building a home repair fund for major repairs as our home gets older.
• If everything goes as planned, Yvette’s mom should be permanently moving back in with us next week. After her being here for the month of July and gone in August, we are looking forward to having her move back. We anticipate that she will be taking El Paso trips, for a few weeks at a time, every few months since that is where her family is located.

• Yvette and I were in the gym at 4:50 am this morning, the first time in at least a couple of months. It felt great even if my body told me I wasn’t strong enough to do my old dumbbell routine.
• Almost a week and a half with Yvette’s mom staying with us. The transition has been a lot smoother than I originally thought. It will be strange when she heads back to El Paso at the end of July.
• Wanted to go camping with friends this weekend, but it couldn’t happen. Looking forward to our camping trip at Canyon Lake in August.
• Closing in on a year of maintaining my weight at or below 160 lbs. A couple of weeks ago, Yvette finally made me donate the last of my big clothes that I had been holding onto for just in case.
• Had a great time meeting with friends for dinner and drinks last week. Wish we could do it more often.
• Pleased that we paid off another bill this month as we work towards becoming debt free, except for the house. It is a slow process, but Yvette and I are making progress every month.

I have not been active in politics, other than U.S. Presidential elections or when there was an issue on the ballot that was important to me. However, that changed in December when I found out that a friend of mine and fellow volunteer firefighter was going to be running for an at-large seat on the Kyle City Council.

I have known Mike Fulton or “Big Mike” as he is known around the Kyle Fire Department, for the last few years. Our relationship began when he joined the department to serve his community and the surrounding area.

What set Mike apart fairly quickly, in addition to responding to emergencies, is that he truly wanted to serve. He showed his drive fairly quickly by taking on the planning and coordination for our annual fish fry, which is the largest fund raiser that our fire department holds each year. In addition to overseeing the fish fry, Mike took on the additional responsibility of handling the silent auction, which occurs during the fish fry. His efforts really showed with the culmination of a successful fish fry and silent auction, which brought thousands of dollars into the department. He has continued to taken an active role in the fish fry every year thereafter.

Mike and I find ourselves responding on the same fire calls, but I am not ashamed to admit that he responds on more calls than me. Mike is driven to support the fire department and the community that it serves.

Shortly after Mike joined the fire department, I found out that he was an active member of our homeowner’s association (HOA). Today he is the vice-president of our HOA board and continues to show support for his community and neighborhood. He has helped lead the way with changes to our neighborhood that made it safer, while stretching our HOA dues farther. Today, we now have security cameras around our pool and a new fence around our park, both for the safety of the neighborhood children and families. Mike also helped change management companies and other maintenance contracts, in his ongoing efforts to reduce our HOA expenses. Not a month goes by when I don’t receive an HOA email from Mike about something going on in our community.

Mike regularly attends the Kyle City Council meetings and, when we a little quiet time before a fire meeting or call, he likes to share information on the happenings with the city and its citizens.

Mike is happily married to Jossette Fulton and has two children.  He is also a U.S. Army veteran.

I am honored to be able to call Mike Fulton my friend and proud to say that “I support Mike Fulton for Kyle City Council”!

I have been struggling to lose weight almost all of my adult life. A part of that struggle comes from my upbringing. While our family struggled at times, there always seemed to be enough food and being “husky” was not an issue.

Since March, I have been blogging about my latest effort to shed pounds to get to my goal weight of 160, which I have reached. Mind you, my goal weight isn’t even my “healthy” weight according to Nutrition.gov. At a height of 5′ 6″ and weight of 160 lbs, my calculated body mass index (BMI) is 25.8, which is considered overweight.

Here is the interesting issue, some thoughtful people have approached my wife with concerns that I was secretly ill, which was causing my weight loss. While I appreciate their concerns, it is interesting that my weight loss, which is still heavy, brought it on. Some of these people knew me when I was at 230 lbs, my heaviest. Others new me when my heaviest this year was 194 lbs. So, is the concern really with my current weight, or is it a comparison between what I used to look like and what I look like today?

I plan to stay right around my current weight, which feels really good. I am happy with my body and Yvette is happy with me, although she wants me to bulk up my chest and arms.

Yvette and I just got back from Port Aransas after spending an incredible three relaxing days with friends on the beach.  The trip started as a “birthday” thing for Melly.  I am withholding her age for my own safety although I can share that she is now xx years old.  This was Yvette’s and my first time in Port Aransas and it was wonderful!  You can check out some of the pictures here.

Dallas, Sara, Melly and Mason arrived Thursday afternoon with Yvette and I following late that evening.  Yvette and I took the auto ferry over to the island.  It was interesting, but went a lot faster than I would have thought.  We were on the ferry, across the channel, and off again within several minutes.  Dallas gave us directions from the ferry landing to the hotel, but I missed a turn and Yvette and I ended up on the beach.  We drove down the beach for about a mile until we found a service road that took us back out to the main road and to the hotel.

We stayed in a two-bedroom condo at the Mayan Princess.  The place was huge, just over 1000 square feet.  It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a complete kitchen. The view from our patio was just gorgeous.  We were actually closer to the gulf than the room that Yvette and I had in Cozumel.

On Friday, Yvette and I fixed breakfast just like when we camp.  Having a kitchen with a dishwasher made preparation and cleanup much easier.  After breakfast, all of us strolled down to the beach and played in the surf and sand.  Yvette and I managed to walk out quite a ways into the surf because the ground did not drop off very much.  After drinking plenty of saltwater, we built some sand “things” on the beach.  I would not call them sculptures.

After getting sand into too many places, we adjourned back to the pool.  Later that afternoon, a few of us headed into town for some souvenir and grocery shopping.  Melly and Dallas picked up some fresh seafood for dinner.

We went back to the hotel and just as we were preparing dinner, Blaine, Kate and Wyatt arrived.  Dallas and Sara were in charge of dinner.  Before the trip, everyone had planned to go out for dinner, but we were very happy that he didn’t.  Dallas and Sarah made shrimp etouffee, shrimp in butter sauce, and steamed crab.  For desert we had red velvet cake to celebrate Melly’s birthday.  After dinner we took a stroll down the beach and the back in the pool for some night swimming.

Saturday bought more fun and relaxation.  Melly and Dallas left early for some bay fishing.  Yvette and I went into town for souvenir shopping again.  We found out that 4 or 5 of the larger shops were owned by the same company.  Later in the afternoon, Yvette and I took another trip to the beach.  Sara and Dallas tackled dinner again, this time preparing some of the fish that he and Melly had caught.  It was wonderful.

Sunday came way to quickly, but together we had the condo cleaned and everyone packed and out the door just after 10:00 AM.

Yvette and I had a wonderful time for just a little money.  Taking just one day off but spending it with friends on the beach did a lot to recharge our batteries.