Only 364 Shopping Days Left

Well another Christmas has come and gone

3rd Annual Christmas Letter, 2009

The first real snow of the year is on the ground so what better time to write the old Christmas Letter. In preparation for writing this year's letter I reviewed some of the previous years' letters. That is one nice thing about the old blog, you can just go back and look at last year's letter anytime, not that i don't keep everyone else's letters too. Anyway 2009 was a little different for the Helfen's. Actually is started out kind of hectic as I was unemployed for about 2 days when the Triple C ranch closed its doors and I went back to the Big O. I wasn't planning on staying there, but things started working out and it ended up being a really good fit for me, so I guess it was kind of a blessing in disguise . . . deep deep cover disguise. Anyway after the initial rough phase of the year things started coming our way. I got Sophie a really nice Sony Camera for her Birthday, actually it was after her birthday because we had to do a lot of shopping for a camera that met all of her needs. Which are a lot for someone who is as particular about her pictures as Sophie is. Sampson played T-ball again for the Pirates and did really well holding down the hot corner for most of the year. It was neat to see how much he had improved since last year. His team even pulled off a legit double play. Football was a little rough this year as the Buckeyes came up short in the playoffs even after scoring more points than the other team, but in the third place game he did score 2 TD's so that was pretty awesome. Now he is playing basketball for the 1st time and doing really well, he even scored in the first game. Peach had a pretty rough year too, like old Dad. She started out getting stitches in February after doing a face plant on a popcorn tin, then she managed to break her arm right before her first ever dance recital. She did really well though, she just didn't get to do her Acro stuff, but we waved and made a big fuss for her and she smiled really big while she was sitting there with the other girls. After the recital, she got flowers and a dancer Barbie. She was very excited. Also me and Sampson won the fishing Derby, which was awesome. We had been trying ever since he could hold a fishing rod, ok even before he could, but this year we won, finally.

After the kids' birthday party in July we headed to Pennsylvania for our vacation. We headed to Lancaster for Dutch Wonderland and a stay at the Howard Johnson and their indoor water park. We detoured through Gettysburg on the way and back, which I thought was really interesting, but Sophie and Sampson didn't enjoy it very much. Peach liked it pretty well I think though. We all enjoyed Dutch Wonderland though. They had a combo amusement park and a water park there and we spent the whole day. We did the sky ride and the roller coasters (the little one once with everyone, I had to ride the big one myself), and the big water slides. It was a very fun trip and slightly educational. The indoor water park was fun too, as it was right in the hotel, then at lunch we went to Chuck E. Cheese and for dinner we went to Friendly's which was neat because they had a balloon guy and he made animals for the kids.

Sophie and the kids also got to go to the Columbus Zoo with her Aunt and her boys this year. That was a long day for them, Dad didn't get to go cause they went in the middle of the week, but Peach is still talking about the trip. Sophie got a lot of neat pics too.

The end of the year seems to be picking up for the Helfen household too. Work is going pretty well, the company stock is up about 1000%, but I don't want to take all the credit for that. I mean I'd like to think I helped. I won Fantasy baseball this year too, so if you see Stevie remind him about that. Also I played a bunch of different online games and met some really neat people. Well here is hoping this finds you happy and healthy, and wishing you a great 2010.

Love,

The Helfens

Kirk, Sophie, Sampson and Peach

CrossRoads ... or not

I'm just at a very difficult part in my professional career as this year winds to a close.  I have been with my current employer for the last 4+ years and have probably done more here than at any place I have worked before.  Not combined for everywhere, but I have been involved in two reactor installs and have been involved in all of the instrumentation and commissioning of every new piece of equipment that has been brought on-line in that period.  So I feel like I have done a lot and I definitely have the knowledge of all these new pieces.  So onto the cross road part.  Well recently my boss got promoted (congrats), but I did not.  That's okay as I don't really have a back up and no one is in a position to do my job if I moved up so I would essentially be stuck doing two full jobs which would be impossible.  But (and there is always a but right?) when the move happened I wasn't involved in any of the talks.  Well that's fine as I'm just a lowly process engineer, but I was told that I would be reporting to the production manager who was going to take over some of the site manager responsibilities.  I said that wouldn't be a problem as that was my gut reaction to be a good little soldier and not a problem maker.  After about a week, December 8th to be exact, it starts to dawn on me that 1) I wasn't consulted in any of the decisions and am the 3rd most tenured person at the plant now, 2) my responsibilities seemed to increase after my boss left with no increase in compensation even though the new manager got a promotion and raise.  Now I'm not one to begrudge someone else but the person that got the promotion was in a similar position on the org chart to me, but now I'm below them.  So this is indirectly a demotion for me.  Now I'm second in tenure at the plant, but aren't being consulted about any decisions related to the plant.   So in the first month of this experiment I've watched us run our most critical chemical level down to a point where we didn't have enough to neutralize our tank, and the level in the tank has dropped off the thermocouple, so we have run the pump in manual for the last 2 weeks because the automated heating and cooling cycles won't work.  We ruined a pump and in haste to neutralize a tank used a chemical that we haven't used before and it corroded the inside of the tank.  To boot the only reason that we didn't have more issue with the chemical tank was because I just happened to realize the cooling system was trying to run, but wasn't working and the tank was heating up by the constant recirculation.  I'm just at a difficult point because I have seen a lot of other plants close and fail, and I don't think we are there, but there has definitely been a change in the last month that isn't a positive.  I don't really want to leave because of all the time and work I have put in, but I question where my ceiling is now.  Clearly I'm not getting the credit, or should I say some other people are extremely good at taking credit, and now if I say something to management it will seem like sour grapes.  Also the people that I work with are slowly starting to grade on my patience and there are about 4 people that I try and avoid at all costs, which is not good for a work environment.  At any rate this is just kind of an exercise to help me think through things and really give myself some perspective.  Every time I have left a job in the past has been out of necessity to stay employed and this would really be the first I have left because of work issues.  I honestly don't see a way out, but it is going to take a while.  All I can do is put my faith in God that he has guided me through things before and done it for a reason.  If my purpose has been served here and it is time to move on then great, but if I'm supposed to persevere to learn something then that is going to be rough.  I know how hard it is to start over and my past is about 4-5 years and hit the reset.  I have about 20 years left and there is no way I'm going to be miserable working for the next 20 years.  Peach said she wants me to be happy, but that is a hard thing sometimes.  What really makes you happy?  Knowledge of what you are doing?  Comfort where you are working?  Not having to start over again?  Feeling that what you are doing matters and getting recognized for it?  Well I know what being miserable is, happiness may just have to wait.  Hears hoping 2018 goes better.  Good luck everyone.