Any other puzzlers out there?

[CathyA]

Sometimes my puzzling scares me a little. Sometimes it seems like my arm works without me.........like it sees a piece that belongs somewhere before "I" do and it picks it up and puts it in the right spot.

Tonight was bizarre. I'm doing a neat puzzle of a sunset, a snowy cabin with a couple cardinals in the tree puzzle. Snow is usually blue in puzzles. So I have probably 800 blue pieces. I'd been looking and looking for a piece and couldn't find it. I wanted to show DH how hard it was and picked up the container of all the blue pieces. While I was waiting for him to come look, my hand went into this mass of blue pieces, pulled out the first piece I saw and put it in the exact right spot. It was so bizarre, I almost felt sick to my stomach. How could that have happened? Maybe it was just total luck/coincidence, but it sort of freaked me out!

[JaneV2.0]

I find that if I let my mind wander, I do this too--only with online puzzles. It's a little unsettling.

[Lainey]

I've had something similar: if I'm stuck and then walk away for 10 or 15 minutes, when I return I can immediately pick up 2 or 3 pieces and put them in their right spot. Seems like our brain is processing these shapes and designs even when we're not conscious of it.

[CathyA]

That really happens to me too, Lainey. But for me, it's the first thing in the morning when I can sit down to the puzzle and find many pieces that I gave up looking for the night before. When I start not being able to find any pieces, I know I'm tired and need to quit for awhile..........but it's like gambling..........just one more try!
But last night, I hadn't even been looking in this big container of hundreds of dark blue pieces. I just picked up the container, my hand went in and pulled out a piece........and it fit the place I was looking to fill.
But like you said, our brains are probably picking up a lot as we go, without us even being conscious of it.
I wish I was this obsessed with housework. hahaha

[JaneV2.0]

My memory works like that now--kind of like a Magic 8 Ball. I ask it a question, and twenty minutes later the answer floats into consciousness. If I try to force it, it balks. Not on everything, thankfully, just on the occasional item just out of reach, like "What was the name of that character actor in Nine to Five?"

[CathyA]

That's funny Jane......same thing happens to DH and me. There's no way on earth I can remember a name of a person or place.......Then suddenly, out of nowhere later on.....there's the answer. I blame it on having almost 68 years of info crowded the highways and biways of my brain and it just takes time for the stored info to come out. But dang, it's frustrating. You should hear DH and my dinner conversation........It's usually a constant "hmmm.....I'll have to get back to you on that." Sometimes we just have to laugh at how ridiculous our conversations have become, because of all the missing words we can't think of.

[KayLR]

Ha, we have those ridiculous conversations, too. I love it!

One day for some reason I was trying to remember the NBA player Meta World Peace's name before he changed it. No way. DH couldn't remember either. About 6 hours later at work, I texted him, "Ron Artest." He said it was really non sequitor to him for a minute, then he put 2 and 2 together.

[Williamsmith]

For some reason I’d never given this thread much thought, which is kind of odd because puzzling is something that has been part of my life experiences since a child. I just gave my mother a 1000 piece beachscape puzzle for Christmas. During the winter she doesn’t get out much and that big house of hers seems like a prison to her. Now I think she gets her interest in puzzles from my aunt. My Aunt K. was a frugal, thrifty, minimalist out of necessecity. She literally lived in a tiny house before they were called that. Her and Uncle H. shared a kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom. They always had a puzzle being worked on and any time I visited, we would sit around the puzzle and talk.

We talked about firewood, gardening, canning, baking, what their childhood was like. I learned that often, the Christmas gift was a popcorn ball and an apple. In between talking, we’d pick up pieces and try to fit them in where they didn’t belong and laugh about it. Sometimes, somebody would point out a spot and magically it would fit right in. Then we would maybe talk about the farmers almanac predictions or how Aunt K was doing on the blanket she was knitting for someone else for Christmas or a baby shower.

There were times my Uncle would excuse himself and go out to the kitchen table where he had boxes and boxes of old envelopes sitting waiting for the stamps to be removed by soaking in water. He collected the stamps and sent them somewhere and somehow money would be sent to missionary’s in Africa. And that’s what got me into stamp collecting. But that’s another story.

I don’t know what my Aunt K and Uncle H would have thought about my iPad or the self parking vehicles but I’m pretty sure they would still be doing puzzles if they were still alive. Technology and improvements aside, I’m glad puzzles are still around. They connect me back to a simpler time. A time when it was okay to just sit around and exchange ideas face to face while you worked on something that likely was going to be put back in a box with one piece missing.

And I do miss Uncle Hs pickled beets in mid February and Aunt Ks crescent cookies by the platefull. Here’s to puzzlers everywhere.

[JaneV2.0]

Friends of mine recently came back from a rainy weekend on Orcas Island with family where, beside enjoying the lovely scenery, one of their pastimes was working on a large jigsaw puzzle well into the night. There are some simple pleasures left.

[CathyA]

I love how your write, Williamsmith. You have such a talent for writing. I do miss the simpler times......even though I get caught up in today's "must do/must have" world.

But I so love sitting down to the puzzles. I have to admit, I'm not sure I could function with someone else working on it with me. I find it all so curious........I think it's just finding the right place for the piece, but also having a beautiful image when I'm done. I love thinking about shape, color, texture, size, etc., to find the right piece.

I don't remember doing puzzles when I was young. I did a big red apple one about 35 years ago, but none since. Then I saw that my favorite wildlife artist (Robert Bateman) had several of his images on puzzles, so I did those. Then the bug bit me hard.
It's just such an enjoyable, quiet hobby. And I do get lost in the beautiful rural images that I'm putting together.