Pam Webb

a writer's journey as a reader

Archive for the tag “puzzles”

28 Jan 2025
5 Comments

A Bit of a Puzzle


January 29th is going to be a puzzling day. Literally.

It’s National Puzzle Day. And we are finding puzzles have found their way into our lives.

I grew up with puzzles. My dad had a special table set up and would spend hours piece by piece putting together some scenic masterpiece. I wasn’t too interested in doing puzzles then and barely acknowledged them over the years.

When my hubs sprang his knee skiing it looked liked the long winters were going to get a more tedious since heading up to the slope would no longer be a viable option.

Of course I brought him books from the library. On a whim I brought home a puzzle because why not? There is a free puzzle exchange on the lobby.

As Hemingway said “One puzzle leads to another.” Well, he kind of said that.

We have now been puzzling for several years and we have come to realize there are some etiquette aspects:

Borders first. Creating the perimeter makes it easier to get the picture in perspective.

Sort pieces. A half dozen plastic picnic plates do nicely in separating out the many pieces into a manageable order.

Clean Hands. Yeah, learned that one day while eating my almond butter with honey toast.

No Pets. Cat hair. Dog hair. Not good companions with puzzle pieces.

Track Pieces. Drop a piece. Oh, oh. Better find it. Or at least mark “piece missing” on the box. Don’t forget to circle the place.

No hogging. Sharing is caring. Set a timer if needed. *Oh no, honey. That a general comment—no worries*.

Break down. Just like the last person to use the milk replaces the milk, the last person to finish the puzzle breaks it down and puts it in the box.

Those are the basics. Did I miss any?

Happy puzzling.

Hometown are faves. Liking all that detail.
Ugh. Sky. An unspoken rule—leaving the sky last is, well, ugh.

Posted in creativity, humor, memories, Reflections, Relaxation and tagged , , ,
05 Mar 2016
25 Comments

A Puzzling New Pastime


As much as I love to read in the evening, sometimes I find myself dozing off, getting soundly thwacked in the face. Noses do not generally make for comfortable bookmarks.

With the evening still stretching out ever so long–dark, dark at 5:30 pm *blech*–I try to find ways to stay awake until at least 9:30 or 10 pm. If I go to bed any sooner I am up at 3 or 4 a.m. [My body automatically wakes after 6 hours of sleep. Alarm clocks are a waste. So much for sleeping in. My family jokes about setting Mom instead of an alarm clock if we need to get up early]. I’m willing to get up at 5 a.m–not 4 a.m.

So–long evenings, what to do?

During the day, when I’m not teaching the joys of literature, I’m on the computer grading, answering emails, creating lesson plans, doing more grading, and I’m not real thrilled about jumping on the computer when I get home.

The hubs would be content watching a movie [we don’t do commercial TV] but that’s a lot like screen time to me and I enjoy peace and quiet after a full day of teen jollity.

We tried cribbage. Backgammon too. He’s a chess guy. I’m a checkers fan. Not a knitter.

And then, there I was at the library. Right next to the magazine exchange rack I spy  a new addition: puzzles!

I grew up watching my dad patiently wangle his way through landscape puzzles. Those teeny tiny pieces of chopped scenery boggled my little mind. It looked like boredom in a box and I avoided puzzles growing up. Besides the boredom factor,  I like life organized, and puzzles remind me too much of trying to fix something that was broken. Spin ahead a few decades, and standing there in front of all those free puzzles at the library I became somewhat transfixed. Dad always looked so calm slowly piecing together those pictures. Why not?

Bringing home a puzzle proved much more complicated:

  • a dedicated table is needed
  • a certain light is necessary
  • a certain dedicated area is both needed and necessary

It only took two weeks and five stores to find the perfect table. It took a half hour to clear out a corner. I’m still trying to find the perfect light. But–

We are now on our second puzzle. 

The hubs worries over the quiet addiction that is developing. One little piece leads to another, then another, and soon two hours have gone by. I was almost late to work one morning as we battled out the last twenty pieces of placement. I’m in my coat, lunch bag and purse slung over the shoulder, and I keep muttering: I need to go. I don’t go because I found the tree branch piece and that means it connects to the sky, which bridges the roof to the chimney…Is there a twelve step program for puzzlers?

I am a bit puzzled over our new pastime. I feel dociled, like I’m in a folksy home. I’m nervous about telling the kiddos their folks are puzzling. They will no doubt smirk and nod and sibling-text how cute we are growing in our older years. Fine. They do all that already.

Any one else a puzzler?

Posted in Reflections, Uncategorized and tagged , ,

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