I never thought I would see the day I had a few weeks ago. What happened is a puzzle to me.  I never thought I would react the way I did.  Okay, I don’t want to make this into some big mystery (but I kinda did) so I will just come out and say it. My wife has gotten me into working picture puzzles. She has been doing that throughout our 25+ year marriage. She spends hours upon hours sitting at her hobby table working puzzles. She no longer considers anything less than 2,000 pieces to be a challenge.  I have never shown much interest in this particular hobby. I have always just watched her from afar; I sometimes helped her find one or maybe even two pieces she needed but that was the extent of my involvement. I just couldn’t see the allure of doing what she does.

Then a couple of weeks ago I just got a sudden urge to try this stuff out for myself.  I set up a place at the vacant end of our dining room table (we seldom get any dinner guests anymore) and started trying to find the edge pieces first. That seemed the logical the way to go. My wife wanted to help me but I insisted on learning my own way.  I am kind of ornery in that regard. 🙂 After a couple of weeks the 500th piece was in place. There was a strange sense of satisfaction in putting that final piece in!

I’m not sure what got me started but it was probably the thought of the impending cabin fever I always get between mid-January and mid-February. That is the coldest and usually iciest time of year around here so I seldom get out of the house except for my volunteer work twice a week.  The completion of this first puzzle of my adult life lead to another one. I have found that there is something somewhat relaxing about trying to find a small part of the very large picture. Of course my wife discovered that years ago and since she never misses the chance she said “I told you so”I have heard that phrase frequently recently.  Philosophically I suppose that is what we do generally in life when we try to find the place we fit in the world scheme of things.

I guess I now have the bug as I just ordered a couple more 500 piece puzzles for myself. One, as shown to the right is of a very large sandwich. The other is of a cluttered work shed.  My wife, as most women do, tend to go to the more girly pictures. If I am going to be spending  the hours looking at a picture  in its minutest detail it needs to be a more manly scene. What’s more manly than a big old gnarly sandwich? I presently don’t know where this will end. I expect I will put them up when Spring arrives and all the outdoor work again calls me for many hours of my time.

I’m sure a lot of you out there have already discovered this hobby but I am just now putting picture puzzles as part of my rather extensive hobby portfolio. Its kind of fun and relaxing but after a few hour my back starts to remind me that it is time to do something else.