Tag Archives: cell phones

Doing Puzzles

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I have seen and done many puzzles–not all at once, but one here and one there, and then many puzzles were done.  Puzzles have become so much more elaborate now that there are mobile phones, laptops, and hand-held computers.  The chance to just take out a puzzle to do it at any time transcends the old way of buying newspapers and puzzle books.  They type of puzzles I miss the most are the ones that come in 500 and 1000 pieces, and not only in pictures of animals and landscapes, but in painted pictures considered fine art.  Scenes of families in cramped kitchens around a table–perhaps celebrating a birthday party–or the real parties–that of the Fathers of Confederation in a room similar in color to that of the family at the birthday party.

These types of puzzles didn’t just take a couple of hours to finish–but up to a couple of months. The beautiful thing about it is that you can leave it at any time and come back and pick it up at any time too–progress never given up and only continued from the one time to the next, from one step to the next.

I have very little time now, with my schedule of one thing after one thing to do.  I am imagining when I retire and come close to sitting inside of a nursing home, that I can sit an afternoon or two in a week, just putting puzzles together.  I imagine the TV will be tuned into an afternoon Soap or TV Movie, and, if I am tired of hearing voices in argument all the time, I can turn on the radio and listen to Classical Music.  I see relaxation and happy times just sitting by myself.  (I am imagining that I will send my husband out of the house to go pursue one thing or another.  Just not me.)  My plans for the future tend to be simple, which makes my plans to make it happen, also, simple.  To do and to execute.  I will not attempt those complex things with sudden surprises or unforeseen ambush, as I am literally inviting those things to happen.

The beauty of a puzzle is the quietness of thought and easy concentration on solving the question–to find the answer.  Sometimes, when I am met with a mathematical puzzle, anywhere from solving the amount of tax I will be paying, to the answer to an algorithm in calculus, I start to panic and apply all methods I know of to find that final number…  And, I say, thank you, to all those calculators on mobile phones and on iPods for allowing me to be able to find the answer even if I am not at home, using my trusty calculator!

So, yes, there are some puzzles that are complete problems, that I will not be able to ever, solve.

I want to instill in my kids the ability to do puzzles.  The easy part is putting a puzzle in front of them.  When they were very young, they would usually play with the toy or puzzle for a little while, but, as many puzzles come in simple, I didn’t know what the next puzzle should be?  Now, that they are older, I often accompany them on their experience of puzzles by going to the “Science Center” or by helping out on homework.  Television has also become one of those quagmires to me.  Obviously, my kids are entertained by Disney, while I prefer those deep talking ones, of Reality Shows and fantasy shows of victor and victory.

Sometimes I worry that if my kids do not find something educational, as fun, that they will miss out on the fun.  So, I spend time explaining, as they do their homework.  I go crazy, scavenger hunting for the perfect toy that would helpt them learn puzzles.  But, at the end of the day, I often just give over to what I hear them try to tell me.  That they simply do not like those “Educational Toys” dressed up as “fun.”  So, my husband has introduced some card games, played with the 52-deck of cards for them to play.  We have stayed away from the all-out-hard-as-hard-liquor gambling games, by playing games with  technical ability involved, thus keeping my children’s attention.  So far, I do not smell any ill-begotten habits.  We still go to Disney Park every few years, and there is no disappointment.

I thank my own dad for giving me the joy of the puzzle. The simpler, the better.  It keeps me humming along to the songs on the radio, and I don’t get bored at looking at all the beautiful people on the Soaps or on Matinee Movies as they speak in endless circles about so-and-so and in how-to-do-it speak to demonstrate the technique.  The beauty is that once a puzzle is done, there is always just another one around the corner.  At the dollar store, they cost one or two dollars for endless fun.  I hope that this part of me doesn’t disappear or become obsolete.  I would hate never to buy another one of those One Thousand Piece Puzzles.  I think I will have to down-size and get a puzzle table.  One that fits in the living area.  And then, to have that space, and that comfort, all ready, to be used and enjoyed, I think I can do that.

My Memory of the Most Fun

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The most fun I have ever had was a very, very long time ago.  We were at the theme park, not for the first time that summer… probably it was our third or fourth time there.  The fun was that I had the whole map of the park in my head… Not just where the front entrance was of where the Smurf Village was… but detailed locations of each ride and the direction of the water rides and the baby rides too.  It was amazing, to command such personal power.  I felt I could go anywhere, without feeling like I was guessing and getting myself lost.

I still remember that day.  I traveled the whole park and had fun knowing where I was going to meet up with so-and-so, or him, or her.  We did not have cells phones, and no one actually bought walkie-talkies.  After playing with toys like connected phones, batteried walkie-talkies, and anything as fun and futuristic, we knew the real thing was worth waiting for.  So, in this dark age, we had our maps, our watches to tell time, and the promise to be back at the main gates, if, God forbid, we were to get lost.

What mad this “routine day at the park” the most fun, was that our parents let us run free.  Nowadays, with cell phones, there is no way to recreate the “free feeling” coupled with the “a sense of fear and excitement” from the possibility of becoming lost and never found again except as a chopped up corpse at the back of the theme park where a swampy forest grew.

The real fun, of course, was being out of sight and getting on the “best” rides, again and again, if we were so enamored.  We could also buy all the funnel cakes with double ice cream and strawberry sauce with nuts and pieces of chocolate cookies as well… Without our parents warning that we would never be able to eat dinner.  For some reason, this was before my first job (I got one as soon as I could lawfully be paid), and I think my mom was generous on this day.  So, with what I thought was enough money to ransom a mouse from a cat, I had fun all day…  Getting lost, buying everything I wanted, and staying until the sky got dark and the crickets and the stars came out.

I feel lucky that I have a memory of fun that is actually officially sanctioned by adults and by the law.  I now look for fun things with a mind much more attentive to how slow things go rather than how fast things go.  I wander the liquor stores to find “Vintage” rather than “50 Proof.”  I pay money to watch athletes, professional acrobats, and other people pushing the limits of living, so that I can laugh at them.  And sometimes, the laughs don’t come until the final score is made.

So,  as the height of summer approaches, I am going to slowly sit in my Muskoka Chair by the lake, and sip a cocktail that I hand make from several bottles of beer and liquor, and enjoy the fact that it will take the sun several hours to set. I won’t go back into the cottage until I hear the lonely, forlorn, cry of the loon for its mate.