Eric Holen

Earlier today, I heard a radio personality mention home improvement projects they were undertaking over the long weekend.  For some unknown reason, that got me to thinking about home improvement projects for a marriage.

Let’s not confuse home improvement for home repair.  For example, when you send flowers because you screwed up, that’s home repair.  When you send flowers just because, that’s home improvement.

Many of us have good marriages; however, it’s the home improvements that make our marriages better.  Yvette sometimes says our marriage is almost perfect. That used to bother me, but then she explained that a marriage is never perfect so that we always have some something to work on and improve.

How do I perform home improvement in our marriage? First, I unload the dishwasher without being asked (I am not allowed to load it). I take out the garbage when it is getting full. I get up in the morning, allowing Yvette to have her “5 more minutes” 3 times over, to start the coffee and take out the dogs.

It’s the home improvements that help us keep our marriages out of home repair mode.  What home improvements are you making in your marriage?

Yvette and I are coming up on our 14 year anniversary in April.  We often like to say that you can count the number of arguments (fights) we have had in two hands. However, it’s the home improvements that help carry our marriage forward.

If you are considering running in an upcoming election, I encourage you to not place an election sign in my yard.  It seems that my yard as some adverse affect on political candidates.

Within that last year, I have become more involved in trying to support the political candidates that serve or will serve our community.  To that extent, I offered up my yard a few times to host some signs.

Unfortunately, my yard is batting .000 (not a single hit).  The first two signs went up earlier this year.  Both candidates lost their respective elections.

This October, another candidate, an incumbent no less, asked to put a sign in my yard.  Since I fully supported them and had voted for them in the past, I agreed.  Then November 2 came along and the candidate lost the election.

I had a fourth candidate, also an incumbent, approach me.  When I expressed my support for them and the work they did, they asked if they could place a sign in my yard.  Again, I agreed.

Now what’s interesting is the yard sign never arrived, but the candidate won their election.  Could it be that they stopped by my yard, somehow sensed political doom, and decided not to place a sign?

So if you are candidate for an upcoming election, I wouldn’t ask to place a sign in my yard.  However, if you’re someone I support, maybe I can help by placing your opponent’s sign in my yard bringing the political doom down on them instead.

I have come to the realization that I will likely never buy another computer, desktop that is.  I bought my latest computer in August 2009, even writing a blog about the interim computer I had for just a week.

When I bought the computer, I had visions of spending hours on it playing games.  The reality is that I don’t often have the time to play games.  Then there was the need for Internet access and email.  However, today I spend more time cruising the Internet and reading email on my phone then I do the computer.  When I do get time to play games, Yvette comments that I seem to break away every 30 minutes or so to see what she is doing.  In reality, my desktop computer serves two purposes, occasionally playing games and updating finances using Quicken.

I have gone through my share of desktop computers.  My first, and most expensive, was an IBM PS/1 that I bought in 1990.  That followed a few years later by a Digital Starion, then a Dell, a Gateway and finally my current computer, a HP.  Generally, I have tried to squeeze three or four years out of each computer.  Currently, Yvette uses the Gateway while the Dell, which runs Windows XP, serves as my gaming computer for older games.

Will I stop having a computer, definitely not.  My next computer will most likely be a laptop computer.  Yvette’s probably not looking forward to that day since I will be able to use the computer while sitting next to her while she is watching television.

Earlier this week, I did something for the very first time. I unfriended a couple of people on Facebook.

It wasn’t personal or based on something they posted. Instead it was reflection on my part on whether I could offer them something by being their Facebook friend or they offered me something. In the end, I determined that it didn’t make sense for either of us to continue being Facebook friends, so I unfriended them. For me, it’s not about the number of friends, it’s about what we can share with each other.

For me, Facebook is a way to keep up with the people that I don’t get to talk with on a regular basis. They might be personal friends, professional relationships, or something that falls in between. It’s not about the numbers, it’s about the sharing.

Today, I have 173 friends on Facebook, of which 60 are also friends of Yvette. If you find yourself unfriended by me, it’s not me and it’s not you, it’s us.

Today, Yvette and I climbed Enchanted Rock and I couldn’t be more proud of my wife for her accomplishment.

The trip grew out of a plan of Yvette’s to keep me from going back to work for two days when we returned from El Paso on Wednesday. That day, we had stopped at the visitor information center in Ozona for a break and lunch. There we picked up some travel brochures including one on Enchanted Rock. Yvette knew I wanted to go since I had previously downloaded a copy of the park map. So when we hit the road again for the last leg home, she threw out the idea of going to the park on Thursday or Friday. Thursday ended up being a sleep late and catch up on grocery shopping, so Friday became the day.

This morning started out with me making a good breakfast to get us started before we hit the road for the 134 mile drive to the park.

We couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather for climbing. It had been raining and overcast so it was relatively cool for a summer day.

After checking in at the park, Yvette and I started our climb up the summit trail. It wasn’t long before she realized and started to vocalize how difficult the climb was for her. I tried not to laugh at some of the comments that came out of her mouth.

When we were about two thirds of the way up, it became pretty steep and we had to zig-zag up the slope. We would take about 20 or 30 steps and stop so Yvette could rest. I could tell that her will was starting to break down when she hinted that I should go ahead and that she would catch up. Instead, I stuck with her and we continued slowly up the rock face. It didn’t help that I never broke a sweat or showed any signs of exertion during the climb.

We finally reached the top and it was then that I could tell how proud Yvette was of herself.

Yvette’s struggles reminded me of the time that I tried and failed to climb Grouse Mountain in Vancouver during a business trip in 1997. I failed because I was severely overweight and out of shape at the time. I have vowed that when Yvette and I take our Alaskan cruise out of Vancouver, that I will attempt and succeed at climbing Grouse Mountain.

Yvette has her own struggles, but today, she really showed how she overcame to reach the top.