Why I don't carry a gun

Normally I'm a very calm person, just like the chef in the cingular commercial. I like to stay that way until I experience something beyond the pale.

Yesterday morning we were having a crisis at one of our clients offices. At about 08:30 they started experiencing network difficulties. At first it was just a few users that couldn't access their email, but it very quickly exploded into all users not being able to access any network resources. I tried to remote into their servers to fix the problem but found that everything on their network was inaccessible. I immediately drove to their location to begin troubleshooting the problem on site. With the help of my boss we soon eliminated everything but actual physical network problems. I ran around to check all the network devices and found them all to be in order except for two switches. Why couldn't I eliminate those two switches? Because they were in a closet with a locked f-ing door and nobody had a key to it. I called my boss and he said to call the building manager. I had one of the girls call him and try to convey the urgency of the situation - we had 3 floors and 4 locations COMPLETELY DOWN and we needed him up there YESTERDAY.

I waited next to the elevators for him. About 10 minutes later he finally drags his happy ass up there. I was getting very annoyed just because it took him so long to come, but what he said next made me irate. When I saw him in the elevator I started walking over to the closet while he took his sweet time. When we got to the closet door he said 'Looks like somebody had too much coffee this morning'. At this point, if I were carrying a gun, I would have shot that smug bastard right in his filthy sewer and let him bleed to death. Instead, I asked him if anyone had told him how urgent this was. He said *blah blah blah* and finally opened the door.

As we suspected, the two switches in the closet were without power. I quickly unplugged them from the failing UPS and plugged them into the wall. I asked the guy why the door was locked and why nobody had a key. He said that we weren't 'allowed' into that room whenever we wanted. I asked him if he really meant that we couldn't get into a room we were renting to service the equipment we owned, he said 'yes'. I held myself back from beating him to death with the failed UPS and told him that if it happens again I'd just kick the door in. He gave a 'humph' and left. I can't remember the last time I was so pissed at somebody. It's a good thing that client is moving at the end of the month and we're getting new proper server rooms.