Trust and caution.

Trust breeds trustworthiness.

We've had painters since the end of February. They haven't yet started painting. We are well into Autumn. They've found some rot and rust and have been fixing that first. They've only had one person on the job much of the time and it's a big house. The first one quit (perhaps being put to prep a big house all by himself was a bit depressing). Despite lovely weather the last two days his replacement hasn't been around. Sean rang the boss this morning. Turns out the replacement was arrested on the weekend and hasn't come back to work.

Arrested. What for?

There are so many crimes, and even if the person's guilty most of them are irrelevant to us. But painters need access to our keys, are on good terms with our children, and know a lot about our habits and possessions.

So I'm using the burglar alarm, locking the doors, and keeping my phone at hand.

... later ... The police, while rightly unable to tell me anything about a person's arrest on the weekend, did say that "nothing leapt out" as suggesting that it would be wise for me to avoid being home alone with the children. Which is a great relief, property is property but persons are people.