Who is your daddy and what does he do

So here I sit, December 23rd, 2 days before Christmas, and I'm in my office. So much fun to do.

Everyone I talk to asks the same two questions:
Q: Are you going home for christmas?
A: No, I have to work Christmas shutdown.

Q: Is your boss some kind of a christmas nazi?
A: No, this is just what we do every year. It's my job, and I knew what I was getting into.

Let me explain a little about what it is that I do. I am a Project Engineer. As the name suggests, a big part of what project engineers do is managing projects. These projects may range from the installation of a new site electrical substation, to istalling new conveying equipment, to preforming building structural reinforcements, to puting a new roof on the plant. In order to accomplish projects that are outside the normal working capactiy or skillset of plant electricians, mechanics and millwrights, I must hire contractors. As such, a lot of what I do envolves the planning, supervision and overall management of these contractors.

Every year, every plant is granted a sum of money to handle infrastructure and maintenance upgrades. This money is then allocated to various projects and slowly used up as the year progresses. Being in the maintenance deparment, a large portion of this money comes my way (or my bosses way, to be truthful). As a result of this year-to-year type scenario with respect to budgetary allowances, we find ourselves every year with a small sum of money remianing to be spent before year end. As such, every year the plant takes a production outage during the week directly following Christmas to preform vital maintenace to equipment and to eat up all remaining budget dollars for the year.

This year, perhaps more than years past (tho I can't say from personal experience) the crunch is definitely on. I have about a half a million dollars to spend in the next 6 days. Translation: I will be on site almost around the clock every day except for Christmas day over this holiday season as I supervise and manage the contractors working on my projects.

Is it good expereince? Yes. Do I earn some credibility for being a hard worker? Yes. Do I enjoy it? Most of the time. Do I miss my family and friends and wish I could be home right now getting drunk and eating turkey? You bet your ass I do.

It's hard, but nobody said it was easy. It's life. I won't lie and say I've been completely happy. In fact, I would hazzard to say I've been a shade on the depressed side over the past few months. And this whole 'first christmas away from home' thing is now actually hitting me a lot harder than I thought it would. But that's it. I'll get though it. And hey, it's only a week and I'll be home. That's what keeps me going.

I will tell you this. My family and friends are my backbone. Without you guys (and you know who you are), the world would look a whole lot darker. Thanks for that.
And thanks for the Christmas cards too! I don't really believe in sending out Christmas cards cause I'm a big jerk, but I still very much appreciate the ones I got. Maybe next year I'll change my ways.

I'm gonna be in the office a bit, so stayed tuned for more holiday posts.
Cheers,
Reid