This is a much requested follow up / update to the tale of great justice that I posted yesterday

The Plot Thickens...

After talking to $OLD_LAWYER last night, I slept soundly knowing that great justice was being served. I’d carefully bide my time over the next day or two, then when $HOT_PARTNER was about to crack, jump in and save the day this weekend. She again tried calling my cell phone at like 6:45 this morning while I was on my way into work, but didn't bother leaving a message.

I go to work at $AWESOME_COMPANY, hammer out more code changes, work on a confusing piece of SFTP file upload scripting…the usual stuff. I’m rather pleased because my favorite food truck which serves epic ribs and pulled pork (think Freddy’s BBQ from House of Cards, just in truck form) would be at the run-down 80’s mall parking lot a mere 2 miles north of the office today. Yesssssss. 11:30 rolls around like clockwork, and $PartnerInCrime and myself hop into the 370Z and bolt up the highway towards deliciousness.

Cell phone rings…but it’s the last person I’m expecting to call me – my good buddy $HippyTech from back home. I immediately remember that when I moved out to the middle of the state last summer, I had emailed his info to $OLD_LAWYER as they could contract with him in the event there was an emergency and I was unavailable…$HOT_PARTNER probably was CC’d on the conversation. $HippyTech is a guy I've known for well over 10 years, he runs his own small PC repair shop in my hometown and deals with home/office/small biz customers, plus specializes in breaking down ANYTHING into parts and hawking it for epic profits on eBay. He’s someone I know I can count on to take care of people properly, despite his obvious eccentricities.

$HT: Hey mon, you know a $HOT_PARTNER over at $LITTLE_LAWFIRM…she just called me about fixing some server mess and said you referred them to me.

I proceed to elaborate on the situation to him. He’s tickled pink.

$HT: Ahhh…cool mon, well her and her partner were certainly going at it. He kept trying to tell me what was going on and she just told him to shut up. I figured it’d be wise to give you a call before I schedule a visit to them…or should I even bother scheduling a visit?

Me: (thick with sarcasm) Well, I know you’re one of the best techs in the area and you obviously charge a very hefty premium for your services…I’m sure it’d cost them an arm and a leg to have you fix everything.

$HT: Oh yeah…I don’t know if they’d be able to afford my presence. I’m a pricey fella. And I probably wouldn't be able to get out there until next week sometime, I’m really in demand.

Me: That’s what I figured. I know you’ll handle it in a professional manner, $HippyTech.

$HT: Indeed. Peace mon.

I hang up and am unable to suppress my ear-to-ear grin as I get some epic BBQ and Sweet Tea.

Ice Cube’s “Today Was A Good Day” is promptly queued up on the drive back to work.

$HippyTech texts me later that day…they can’t afford his services, plus he wouldn't be able to get out there until next Wednesday. After all, he's a busy guy.

$OLD_LAWYER sends me an email asking me to call him when I get off work. I call him on the drive to the gym from work.

$HOT_PARTNER and $SMARTGUY are beyond lost now that $HippyTech has them under the impression it’s going to cost half as much as a new BMW to get things fixed. $OLD_LAWYER has informed $HOT_PARTNER that he’s going to try to ‘reach out’ to me, but can’t guarantee I’ll be able to come back since $SMARTGUY was such a prick to me and created this mess. $HOT_PARTNER apparently went outside the office on her cell and told $OLD_LAWYER that she’d do ANYTHING if he could convince me to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again.

I let $OLD_LAWYER know I’d be willing to help, but that I won’t deal with $SMARTGUY and want some sort of agreement that will essentially give me a hold harmless, exclusivity, and a caveat against him meddling. He’s quite happy to whip something up and will email it to me tomorrow to review. I also note that if I’m going to fix things over the weekend (I’m planning to consolidate everything onto one server for simplicity’s sake), I need to get a copy of Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials ordered pronto so I can have it delivered by Friday but don’t want to order it on my credit cards unless I know I’ll get reimbursed. He tells me to email him the link and he’ll order it to his home. Score.

While I was at the gym post-work, $HOT_PARTNER called again and left a voicemail. But this was the voicemail I’d been waiting for…she was pretty much bawling her eyes out and in total meltdown mode (I had to clean up the quote below because her actual message had quite a bit of vulgarity to it):

Hey, it’s $HOT_PARTNER…Please call me! I’m really sorry about what $SMARTGUY did. He’s worthless. He screwed everything up, and it’s my fault for thinking he knew better than you did. I’m really really sorry. My whole life is ruined if I can’t get this fixed. I was so stupid. Clients are starting to get really pissed, I’m having to use my personal laptop for my e-mail, I can’t pull up anything...it’s a total disaster. I’m so so so sorry and you’re the only person that can help us right now...$SMARTGUY was in the wrong to insult you like that, you’re smart and have taken better care of us than anybody else could. Please please please call me! I’ll do ANYTHING right now if you can come fix all this crap over the weekend.

Today was a good day. And I haven’t even started grilling up the massive rib-eye that’s been marinating all day. Noms.