Oil Paint

Years ago, our leased car was due to be turned in and an inspector was scheduled to come to our house to look it over for any damage. The night before his arrival, Mike had noticed that there was a spot on the car where some of the paint had scratched off. He remembered that the previous owner of our house had left a bunch of oil paints in the back of our garage and decided to mix up the appropriate green paint to cover the spot. Little did we know that it hadn't dried because it was a very humid night.

The next day, the inspector came and met Mike in front of our house and examined our car. I was hiding in our bedroom to avoid inevitable embarrassment. About 20 minutes later, Mike came in laughing and saying, "Oh my God" over and over again. It turns out that the inspector touched the spot on our car where the still wet green paint was, and failed to notice he had it on his hand. As he told Mike that everything looked fine, he rubbed the side of his nose with his paint- saturated hand. In his horror Mike was momentarily speechless, but then decided to tell him that he had something on his face. The man thought that maybe his pen leaked, and my husband seized the opportunity to feign agreement. The poor schmuck drove off not realizing he had oil paint all over the side of his face that could only be removed by turpentine.

While we couldn't help but howl with laughter over his misfortune, we did always wonder how he got the paint off. I think he had told Mike that he had 3 more inspections to do after ours. What do you think the chances are that when he finally got back to his office, he had a can of turpentine in his desk. I'd say, slim to none.