goat rodeo...

I used to work for ABC Software, but I've been a consultant for about 5 yrs.

I still work with a lot of ABC's clients. And once in a while, ABC will hire me to do something for their clients. This week, they're paying me to connect remotely to client X and do some stuff.

Client X will only allow connection to their system from ABC's network. So I have to connect to ABC, and from there to client X.

First, my connection to ABC had expired.
So they re-opened it.
Then the machine I used to use at ABC to piggy-back to the outside world was gone.
So ABC gave me the address of a different machine to use.
But the new machine didn't accept interactive logons.
So ABC fixed that problem.
Then the machine that client X told me to connect to turned out to be non-existent.
And their tech staff were in a meeting.

In between each step above, imagine numerous Instant Messages, emails, and phone calls from the staff at client X who were waiting for my assistance.

Eventually client X's tech staff returned, got my messages, and gave me the address of another machine to log on to.
And I was successful in connecting to client X.
At which time it was after 5pm Eastern Standard Time, and the clients had all gone home.