Normally when my phone rings, I either take the call or allow my machine to take a message. Today however, my actions were slightly different. For some reason that I am still not clear on, something prompted me to pick up the phone after the first ring. After announcing myself to the caller, I discovered that it was one of my business clients and from the way they sounded on the phone, they were in dire need of my help.

“Matt, we are in it deep this time. Our Internet is totally out, Comcast is not being very helpful and to top it all off, our printer won’t work!” Now, something to note is that I normally would simply schedule them for later on that day or perhaps even later on the following day. After all, it was my lunch break and I was heavily engrossed in a great episode of Night Court. No one bothers me during Night Court. And I mean NO ONE.

Yet as I inquired as to the urgency of their situation, I learned that checks for their employees depend on getting both access to the Internet as well having the ability to print them. After all, the alternative might have mean going with an analog solution - hand written checks. And that folks, is just too inhuman to ask of anyone.

So I spring into action with the reactionary timing of a wet towel. I manage wander my happy little self out to my car and thus, begin the lengthy drive to the neighboring community of Lynden, WA. After I arrive at their home business, I make myself known and begin working on the problem. Sure enough, they managed to have the modem set up wrong. The fix was actually pretty simple as they were try to use the USB cable instead of just going with the typical Ethernet setup. Once that was fixed, I jumped into action with the printer.

This time, I actually had to take a moment to examine the situation a little bit. Everything seemed to check out. Heck, they even reinstalled the printer from scratch! Then something caught my eye: I noticed that the printer cable was quite mangled. “My spidey sense is indicating that something is not quite right with this cable,” I thought to myself. Luckily for me I carry spare cables like nobody’s business. After a fast trip to the car, I made the swap. Boom. XP informs me of a printer being detected after the cable swap. Man, nothing like coming across like a hero while only spending 12 minutes at a location and charging for one hour’s labor along with travel costs. What, think it is too much? Those who interrupt me from watching Night Court must be penalized. After all, some things are sacred.