Here's how it works in a small town

It's Saturday night and the furnace quit working.  Cliff checked it and said he was pretty sure the problem was the thermocouple.  Usually if the furnace quits working, it's due to a power failure and we turn on the burners on the gas range and hope for the best.
  

This time we have power, and I happened to remember that Cliff's sister next door has a nice electric heater she uses when there are upstairs guests.  Cliff went and got it.  It was amazing how fast it heated up our living room.  
Meanwhile, we called a local heating and cooling guy, Rick.  We got his voice mail and left a message.  While we waited, Cliff said maybe I should call our other local heating and cooling guy, Bruce.  When you get his voice mail, he gives his cell number in case you have an emergency.  Remember, this is Saturday night.  
Bruce answered his cell and Cliff told him the problem.  Bruce apologized, but said his grandson had gotten injured (no details given) and that they were at the hospital with him.  He hoped he wouldn't be there all night, and if we didn't get anybody else, he'd be glad to help us out when he could.  
Cliff thanked him and told me to try some other heating and cooling places in other towns.  
"Cliff," I said, "Outside of our community, nobody is going to come out here on a Saturday night at 6:30."
He wanted me to try, so I made a couple of calls, to no avail.  He told me to forget it.  
Before long the phone rang.  It was Rick.  

He did the job, charged a reasonable fee, and we are warm.  
Sometimes it's nice to live in a small-town community.  The population in our town is around 780, and we have TWO heating-and-cooling guys who were ready to come to our rescue.