Generally we have enough staff to cover emergencies without too much trouble, but JM didn't want to call Boss Lady because she only gets one day off a week as it is (plus it was Mother's Day), and didn't want to call Lemme-Tell-Ya because it was his birthday weekend (plus he'd given himself a nasty head injury on a light fixture on Thursday), so it was basically Punmaster or nobody, and when he didn't answer his phone... :-(

And yes! It's always nice when story problems un-knot themselves. :-)