During the day on Sunday, several drives on our ERP server failed. (translation from geek: system is down, no orders, no jobs no shipping no invoicing.. no MONEY). Thankfully we have a 4 hr response support agreement from Hp so we call Hp support to begin the process. After doing the triage, it was discovered that there were 3 drives that failed, so Hp needs to locate compatible drives so we can replace them and get up and running again.
Of the 3 drives, only 1 was found in the Philly area, 1 was found in the NYC area and another somewhere else in the country. We determined we can replace the one drive and limp along until the other drives are replaced.
I drive down to Philly with my dog because I have no idea how long this will take and it would be best if she was with me. We arrive to work about midnight to meet the Hp Tech and UPS who is delivering the drive from Philly. To get into the building, there are 2 doors. The outer door is locked with a key (which I have) and the inner door is locked with a swipe card. After struggling with the alarm system, I finally gained access to the building and brought the dog (and her blanket) to my office and settled in to wait for the UPS guy to show up.
As it turns out, my timing was near perfect. I didnt have to wait long for the UPS guy. So my dog and I met him in the vestibule. I needed both hands to sign for the package, so I placed the box between the door with the swipe entry and it's door jam. (now comes the fun part) Right at that moment as I was signing the paper, Bella decided she needed to be inside, and being a clutzy dog, knocked over the box holding the door open. Click. The door is now shut with me in the vestibule and the dog inside the building. I reach into my pocket to get the swipe card... its not there! ya see, as I was struggling with the alarm, i just shoved the card into my jacket pocket.
I was stuck!!!! I couldn't get in the building, I had no phone to call anyone, and the Hp tech was due to arrive very soon to fix the system that neither of us can get to! This was like a scene is a silly movie where the dog is sitting on the other side of the glass door with a mischievous smirk on her face trying to figure out in what order should she cause the most destruction. thankfully, Bella is a very good dog. All she did was go back to my office and curl up for a nap (as far as I know).
I am sure glad there are no hidden cameras to see what happened next. Needless to say there was a whole lot of yelling and screaming going on knowing full well how silly it was to carry on that way, but it felt real good to let it all out. I then made some attempts at going all black-belt on the glass panel. I executed some real nice reverse side kicks (my speciality from my tae kwon do days). Not a scratch. I then remembered that all the windows were replaced with bullet-stopping glass several years back because... well ... it IS Philly after all.
So I sat and waited for the Hp guy, who showed up at 1:15. After explaining my stupidity, he used his cell phone to call my consultant who found an employee's name in the phone book who then called someone local to let us in. We finally got into the building at 2am.
you just can't make this stuff up.
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