Yeah, walked by it on break. And, well, one piece led to another. Kind of like eating pie…or cake. Pizza. M&Ms… You get it. Now back to work.
Ahead of Schedule
The Christmas Puzzle Is Here
We shopped for a Christmas puzzle last week. One was found and ordered. It arrived yesterday.
It’s one thousand pieces, the count that I prefer. We’ll probably begin it this week. We generally jump out to a quick start, finding ninety percent of the edge (we always seem to miss two or three) and putting it together. Then we rest our minds. Working it slowly develops momentum until it absorbs us. It’s usually me who becomes absorbed. I do most of the puzzle work.
We take so long completing the puzzles that we hope that by starting it before Thanksgiving, we’ll be finished by Christmas.
I’ll be sure to let you know.
The Halloween Puzzle
We finally completed our Halloween puzzle. Yes, it’s late.
We started off strong, finding the edges and putting it together. Then, life intervened. We wanted to work on the puzzle, but we had so many other things drawing our attention. That probably sounds strange during the COVID-19 Lockdown and Social-distancing Era (henceforth called CLASE). I’m a writer, though, and focused on that. Then there was exercising, fall yardwork, and cleaning house. And the NFL football season began. My wife was busy with exercise and dance classes via zoom, reading, socializing, and making us wonderful soups. (She’s making two more this weekend. Can’t wait.)
So other things occupied our time. But I’d go by it and think, “I should be able to get that area done easily enough.” Sure. Right.
There are thirteen cats. I started by hunting for cat pieces. As the cats were by the pumpkin patch — and the pumpkins are bright orange and easily spotting — I started hunting for and selecting those pieces. I would notice house pieces, sky, etc., and set those aside in other piles, mostly so they were out of my way.
Then, you know how it is with a puzzle. One area gets almost finished, but where the heck is that last piece? Meanwhile, as you search for missing last pieces, other things seem to magically come together.
The next thing I knew, the puzzle had sucked me in.
It was a lot of fun, and a good diversion, if that’s what you want.
Jigsaw Puzzle #11 Has Begun
We’ve begun “Dream Garage”, the name of the challenge of jigsaw puzzle #11.
It is a challenge. We love the bright, vivid colors, and detailing, but man oh man, I dislike the weird, uneven shapes. That’s really turned me off.
Anyway, it’s begun. It’ll probably be July before we finish the 1,000 piece beast.
Puzzle #10 of 2020
We began puzzle number ten of 2020 today, the bright red Corvette. Sixty by eighty-five centimeters and fifteen hundred pieces, it’ll be a decent challenge, one that will require us to be Zen: to solve the puzzle, we must be the puzzle.
Puzzle Number 9 – Done
We finished puzzle number nine yesterday afternoon. It was the most entertaining puzzle. The artist, David Bradley, incorporated fascinating details and used sharp, vivid colors. There were many people in it, and it engaged me and my wife to find a piece and ask, “Okay, where’s this hair go,” “Who is missing an ear with a diamond earring,” “Who has a hand with red fingernails?” Each person was given a nickname for easy reference.
His references were interesting, too. Is that Whistler’s Mother in the background? So many of these people presented seem like stereotypes, I can imagine their their background, involvement, and conversations. And love the takes on Laurel and Hardy, Mona Lisa, and American Gothic, and the greenback on the floor. So entertaining.
Next up: the red Corvette.
Puzzle Number 8 Completed
The Edward Gorey jigsaw puzzle was finally finished last night, April 15. We started it on March 30th, so it took a while. To be fair, other events have distracted us from doing the puzzle. My wife didn’t work on it at all until last night as she was reading and preparing for her book club, cleaning, cooking, baking, gardening, and organizing us (yeah, slacker, right?). (No, she isn’t.)
Here’s the photo evidence. (Sorry for the poor photo.)
A new one awaits. Two others are on hand. Three more have been ordered but haven’t shipped yet. There are also jigsaw puzzle exchanges being organized. We’re shared a few but have yet to receive any more.
That is all.
Beginning Another
We stayed away from a new puzzle for a longer period than I expected. But we finally began number puzzle number eight. Nothing to do with the coronavirus and being sequestered. We began this series at the beginning of the year. They’re just fun.
Six Days of Fun
We finished puzzle number seven today. It was definitely my favorite. Vivid colors and well-shaped interlocking pieces (and none missing) made it challenging but fun and satisfying.
We’ll probably take two days off (that’s our norm so far) before beginning another.
Puzzle #6 Finished!
We finished puzzle number 6 about twenty-four hours after we began it…almost.
Six pieces are missing.
Six!
It’s an outrage, I tell youse, an outrage.
My wife suggested that we need to pace ourselves. We only have two jigsaw puzzles left.
Michael Seidel, writer 