The lesser of the two evils

[H]e must select one of the Greek aspects—the one which most nearly expresses what he wishes to say or, perhaps, the one which least obstructs his intentions. Of course, he may go on to qualify or alter this choice of aspect by additional phrases and modifiers, or he may choose to recast his expression entirely to communicate his meaning. But the verb-forms which he uses will reflect a choice of one of the Greek aspects and must conform in some way to the limits of that set of choices.

2. As intimated by the previous point, the choice of aspects may be motivated not so much by the positive value of one aspect as by the desire to avoid the value of another. ...If the language lacks an aspect which produces the desired meaning, the speaker may resort tot he aspect which does the least damage to his intended sense.—B. Fanning, Verbal Aspect in New Testament Greek, page 53

<idle musing>
Praise God for interlibrary loan! $160 for this book? No way could I justify that! Anyway, I'm finally getting around to reading this book (it's been on my list for about 10 years now) and I'm thoroughly enjoying it—where I understand it : )
</idle musing>