Then, they did break, all at once. The lid flew into the air, and headed for the carpet. I put my foot out in an effort to stop it landing on the carpet, which to be fair was a modest success and only half of it did so. The other half landed on my shoe.
My wife immediately got to work to remove the paint before it could set. Unfortunately, it turns out that paint wipes merely spread the paint thinly across the shoe, causing it to dry quicker; furthermore, they open up the surface of the shoe and bind the paint to it. By the time we decided that maybe water was a better idea for removing emulsion, it was pretty well part of the fabric of the shoe. I tried covering it with shoe polish, but to no avail: I'd have to do it twice daily for a month, with soldierly care and attention, to get rid of it.
As I'm giving a talk in Stockholm later this week, I had to buy a new pair. Oh well, more gardening shoes I suppose.
I'd be less annoyed if we weren't going to replace the carpet next month anyway.