paint and the neighbors

My room-mate is unhappy with the painting he did in the hallway of the apartment. It's got some reflective qualities to it and didn't spread evenly. He thinks that in some light it looks like aluminum foil. So, he's making plans to repaint - which is too bad since the paint he got initially is fairly expensive.

Our neighbors came back from their trip yesterday and they stopped over to pick up their mail. She had just been visiting her mother - who is very ill - and had an argument with her siblings that had her pretty upset. While she was in our hallway looking at the paint on the walls her phone rang and she got the news that her mother had just then passed away. She was understandably in shock and my room-mate walked her back over to her apartment with their mail.

I didn't see him again for over 2 hours - he had put on his funeral director / grief counselor hat and was doing what he could to help them out. She and her husband have some rough times ahead with her siblings and with trying to sort out the arrangements, but she has already credited my room-mate with helping them through things.

In other news... I hit the pool again yesterday afternoon and did 18 laps, 1/2 mile. No records set, but I'm getting back to it.