So, what has Jeff been doing since high school? Well, here goes. Those of you who knew me well toward the end of school will know that I turned out not to be the best of students. Yeah, I know, wasted potential
. I pretty much walked the fine line between passing and failing through-out almost all of HS. I had a nasty habit of failing one class a year only to ace it in summer school. Because of this, I missed out on walking with the rest of you on graduation day. Rest assured that I did earn my diploma in '86, though
.
Very soon after HS, and having a very independent streak, I moved out on my own and entered the work force. My first job was in the warehouse at the Service Merchandise in Fort Pierce. After a year or so of that, I decided to move on. I had big plans to be a Domino's driver! Huge tips and half naked ladies on delivery runs here I come! That lasted about a two months. I then embarked on a career selling auto parts at Rose Auto Stores in FP. I enjoyed this job. I was very good at it too. After about a year and a half, they offered me my own store. I'm thinking "not bad for a 20 year-old". But, no, I turned it down. Wholesale was where it's at for me. On that same day, I took a job at Cold Air Distributors. This lasted for a couple of years till they let me go. It seems that they didn't like the idea of me putting in an application with FPL. They were offended that I wasn't planning to spend the rest of my life working for them. So, there I was, with no job and about to enter phase two of my adult-hood.
Through-out all of this I had a couple of failed attempts at apartment living. Then I moved into a house on Azalea Ave just off of US-1 in FP. This period of my life will forever be something that I can't quite remember clearly, but will never forget. To say we partied like rock stars really doesn't do it justice. There are a few of you (you know who you are) that can back me up on this! I am still amazed that I never ended up in jail.
It was during this time that I had a second chance at school. One day, in a hung-over haze, my roommates and I were having a "what are we going to do with our lives" conversation. We decided on going back to school. So, three years out of HS, we sign up to take the ACT at Sand Spur Tech. I amazed myself and did extremely well. My conversation with the counselor went something like this:
counselor: Mr. Helms, You scored very high on the ACT. How would you like a scholarship?
me: Wow! That sounds great!
counselor: Let me just look at your high school transcripts.
me: Uh-oh.
counselor: Holy crap! Your transcripts suck! I'll tell you what, though. Put in a couple of semesters and depending on how well you do, we'll see about a scholarship next year.
me: Um, OK.
With a full-time job and weekend partying to be done, I started out slow with one night class: College Algebra 1. Holy $hit! What did I get myself into? Two nights a week, three chapters a night! I just wasn't ready for this! I dropped out. I'm a loser, baby...
Phase two of my adult-hood. After being out of work for several months, I took a job at Saint Lucie Nuclear Power plant as a security guard. It wasn't what I was looking for, but I had started to develop a strategy for my life. Several of my friends at the time worked for FPL and did very well for themselves. I just missed my first opportunity with them due to affirmative action. Supposedly, my name was next on their list and I would have landed the job if someone ahead of me didn't qualify. No luck there. But I knew, if I could get in with those in-the-know, then I would be where I needed to be when my chance came around again.
For those of you who don't know the operational cycle of a nuclear power plant, every eighteen months or so they have to shut down for refueling and maintenance. During this shut-down, they bring in hundreds of contractors to augment their staff to complete the work quickly so they can restart. One of these "outages" was coming up. I had already decided on what field I wanted to get into, so one of my co-workers and I approached a high-level supervisor about making the jump. He agreed to put in a word for us. All we had to do was quit our jobs and show up on a certain day to take a test. The down side was, if we failed the test, we were out of work. Also, after the outage was over, we were out of work. It was up to us to make our way from there. Being the intrepid souls that we were, we promptly turned in our notices. We took the test (all three hours of it) and passed. I haven't looked back since. I was now a Health Physics Technician! A Junior anyway, like an apprentice.
Health Physics is the study of ionizing radiation and the affect it has on living tissue. An HP technician is tasked with the job of protecting workers who work with radioactive isotopes, radiation generating equipment or in radiation fields be it in a nuclear power plant, hospital, factory, food irradiation facility, or construction site. This responsibility also extends to the protection of the general public.
This was my big opportunity. For real this time. I aggressively pursued work and studied on my own to make sure I was ready for any task or test. For the next eight years I traveled all over the country working at nuclear power plants. I made Senior HP technician in record time and was even filling Lead Technician positions near the end. In October of 1998, I found myself at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site in Golden, CO. That was the fancy new name for a Cold War nuclear weapons facility. I left the commercial nuclear power field to work as a contractor to the US Department of Energy. Now I know why our taxes are so high! After a short while as a technician, I took a position as a Radiological Operations Supervisor. My task was basically the same as in a nuclear power plant except, instead of refueling a reactor, we were decommissioning an atomic bomb factory! This prompted my move to Colorado. Our job was completed in about eight years. Rocky Flats was no more, just empty land. This was a huge milestone because it had never been attempted before. I think we only spent something like 56 billion dollars to do it. This was actually under budget. When I finished Rocky Flats, I was looking forward to some down time. That wasn't going to happen. I got a call for a job the very next day. Since then, I have been working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. That worked out fine, since it's fairly close to Denver and I can travel back there on weekends.
When I was working power plants, I tried to fix it so that I had most of my summers off. I bought a boat and dove and fished and partied as much as I could, that is, until Colorado. That and my friends and family were my greatest loves. In the summer of 1997, I thought I had met my future wife. In a drunken and dancing stupor (at Archie's Sea Breeze on the beach) I asked her out. She turned me down. I'm a loser, baby... The next summer, she asked
me out! Denise Davis, now Helms. She agreed to marry me on June 24, 2000 and moved out to Colorado. I am truly blessed! The wedding reception was epic! We told the guy at the Fort Pierce Yacht Club that our friends really, I mean REALLY liked to party. "Don't worry about it," he said "I've been doing this for years." Later he was heard saying "I have never, EVER completely ran out of alcohol before!" We not only drank every ounce of keg and bottled beer and liquor set aside for the reception, but everything that was in the bar, too! Great fun.
As for a family, we have tried. The good Lord has not yet seen fit to bless us with children. I am sure that He will, probably as soon as we decide to
never have them
. That will be fine. I will treasure them whenever they should arrive. We are not alone, though. We have an absolutely beautiful Siberian Husky named Renegade. She has filled our lives with love and wonder for four years now and continues to do so every day.
And that is where I am now. Please forgive the long and arduous prose. I hope to have photos forthcoming.
Jeff
. I pretty much walked the fine line between passing and failing through-out almost all of HS. I had a nasty habit of failing one class a year only to ace it in summer school. Because of this, I missed out on walking with the rest of you on graduation day. Rest assured that I did earn my diploma in '86, though 
.
