Thoughts on painting

"Point and Paint", the package read. At Ross Dress for Less I was looking for a slender glass to use for milk frothing. Having searched in the usual places, I was now looking at the super discounted sale shelf.
The product caught my eye because I've never been successful at painting anything. Although I've followed the instructions for "painting 101"...all the prep work of scraping and sanding and cleaning with a tack cloth and all of that, when I'm finished, the paint has bled through the masking tape and you can see lines between roller marks and there's usually a spectacular boo boo or two that only a blind person would miss. The blind person would be me.

Is this gizmo the answer to my painting prayers? The end of the device looks like an iron tip and the copy states enthusiastically in italics with lots of exclamation marks that it can be used for high painting - will fit any long extension pole!! and will just zip around fixtures!!!

I was moaning about my tragic painting experiences recently to my actual real professional painter, who happens to be pretty good and best of all, sober, which I've found unusual in the painting biz. He told me about a customer he had who'd called him almost hysterical on the phone - they needed rescuing. When he got to the home, a roller was stuck onto the wall. It had dried in place. The couple had been bickering and badgering each other over the quality of the painting and finally in a complete snit just dropped everything (except the roller) and gave up. By the time the painter arrived a few days after the crisis, they were laughing over the incident and thought it was so funny, they just left the roller there for him to enjoy.

A friend called me years ago in a terrible state. His girlfriend had left him and he was a complete wreck. This man was usually very controlled and rarely if ever showed much emotion. Sobbing and crying on the phone, he told me he'd started painting his whole place navy blue inside and out in an attempt to ease his pain. Strangely, I never spoke to him again. After a week or so, I called him and got his answering machine. After about 10 messages I gave up. From the grapevine, I knew he was still around but I believe he linked me forever with the sad event and didn't want to face me or have to replay any of his sorrow. For me, I linked the whole incident to the navy blue paint and whenever I see it I think about him.

My cousin in Paso Robles recently had his place (with 24 foot high ceilings) painted by a young Vietnamese man who did the whole job with a 4" roller. He worked alone with one extension ladder and a bag full of the small rollers. Cheap, clean, quiet and fast - the ideal painter.  We need one of these in Fallbrook.

"Point and paint" my husband now tells me is one of those late night TV products. Aha....I looked up reviews and find everyone concurs that the device is worthless. More trouble than using a brush or roller and more mess. Another bubble burst.