The trip that almost wasn't

A good afternoon. I know, your surprised to see me this time time of day, but I have a lot to say that won't wait until tomorrow morning.
And this is going to be a long post, so if your just interested in the birthday pics and trip, come back in the morning.
As I left you yesterday morning, I was headed out to clean the Salon. Well, it' gets messy from here. I get to the Salon, get the furniture all moved, vacuum the entire place, go to turn the water in the sink on to preheat for mopping, ..........no water. I'm thinking it must be the faucet. Tried another........no water. Go to the bathroom.....no water. Sh!t! No Water! It was extremely cold last night with a stiff northerly wind. Our water for the mall comes into a maintenance room in the middle of the back of the mall. Facing the fierce north wind. That's where the water meters are. It must have froze the pipes. Our damn landlord is too cheap to heat the room! So who do I call? The only number I have is for the management company we send the rent checks to. I call and of course no one is there because it's a weekend, so I leave a message knowing they won't get it until Monday morning, and they're in Pontiac, MI 60 mile east of here.
Now what to do. Craig will not be happy at all! And will want to cancel my little birthday trip I planned for him. He will not be able to enjoy himself knowing there's a problem. So I think I'll check the maintenance room to see if it's locked. On the way out the door, I see some employees going into another store to do inventory. I go and ask them if they have an emergency contact phone #. Yes, they do! They give me the phone # for the mall property owner. His name is Gino. Cute huh? I go check the door of the maintenance room, it's locked. I go back into the Salon and call Gino. It's only 7am on a Sunday, but I need to get this resolved if we're to be able to go on my little trip! He answers and says he'll get his people on it. He says he's sure he turned the heat on in the maintenance room, but not sure if he did the empty space next to us. Thank god the other business had his phone number. Everything should be okay, right? So I go home, and later wake the birthday boy. I tell him the 'good' news. He's not at all happy and thinks we should cancel the trip. I remind him there's nothing we can do sitting here. They'll come, thaw the pipes, and everything will be fine. He's not convinced. So before we head out, he has me call and make sure they're on their way. I call Gino again around 10am to see the status, he says a plumber is on the way. They don't need access to our unit. He'll make sure there's water running in each unit next to us, then we should be fine. That seems to placate Craig, so we head out. My birthday destination for Craig? Detroit! I made reservations at the new Greektown Casino Hotel in the heart of Detroit's Greektown neighborhood. Good food, fun, and a little gambling. He's still not real happy, but I do my best to sooth his mind. After 33 years, I'm getting real good at this!
Are you following me so far?
We make it 2/3 of the way to Detroit, and I get a phone call on my cell. It's Ben, the property manager. He's on his way to Lansing with the plumber. He's decided that when they get everything thawed, they should check the pipes in our unit to make sure they're not cracked or broken. He has keys to all the units, but didn't bring them all. Remember, he's from Pontiac? So Craig pulls off an exit ramp, ready to turn around. I said we were out of town, but would find one of our staff stylist to swing by to unlock the Salon. So, I check my cell phonebook, and I only put 2 of the stylist in it. I call the first, Patty, and her daughter says she's in Spring Lake, Mi ( 100 mile west of Lansing) on a family emergency. They were snowmobiling and one of the people has turned up missing. But that's another long story. I say that's okay, it's nothing important. I call the second, Pat, and she's up north at their cottage, but should be home by 2pm. I call Ben back, and he said that would be fine. I convince Craig to continue. We make it to Detroit. I get another call from Ben. Where's the stylist that was suppose to meet them? I said I'd call and see. I call her, and they're still nearly 3/4 an hour away. They got a late start. I knew it was because of her husband. But that's another story. I call Ben back, he said they'll wait. I then get a call from Patty in Spring Lake. Her daughter called and said I called, and she wanted to know what was going on. I explained the situation, and she said she had a spare Salon key in her jewelry box. So I got her daughter to run over to the Salon.(they live less than 5 minutes away) So every things good. The waters running, and all is right with the world. And Craig can finally relax.
Was this a long story or what?
His better part of the birthday trip, tomorrow.