Surprise Painting

I came home yesterday to find the owner of the house painting the front of the house. No phone call, no advanced warning. Just there. I suppose this is the sort of thing a house owner does, as a way, maybe, of exerting his place and privilege as owner. Which is his prerogative. Of course, it might be inconvenient if the resident had something planned--a social gathering, a birthday party, whatever. And of course it is always nice to have advance notification so that  one can kind of put things in order beforehand, to demonstrate, you know, that you're taking good, responsible care of the place. But oh well. Living alone, as I do, I'm not given to making much of a mess of the place. Things are generally pretty well squared away because there's really not that much to un-square. Then again, it is also the maid's day to clean the house, and cleaning the house while the house is being painted might not be the best arrangement. Which is something I could have forewarned him about had he called first.