Those who puzzle, and those who don't.
I myself am a puzzler. I love working puzzles, but I only ever do them at Christmas because I already have enough things in my life that suck up my discretionary time. Remember me, Indolent Lounger? I need more reasons to get out and see the world around me, not more reasons to stay home in my jammies. So I limit myself to the holidays, with Christmas being my traditional time to indulge in a yearly puzzle feast. We always have a puzzle to work at my parent's house, and this Christmas was no different. It was a thousand pieces (bare minimum for a decent puzzle) and one of those folk art scenes, like this one, but more Nantucketish and sea-sidey.
It was a nice, sociable puzzle. My mom likes these types of puzzles, all adorned in colorful bric-a-brac, straightforward and easy to work. I myself prefer more nuanced puzzles, with those tiny smudgy pieces that you can't hardly tell what the heck you are looking at, even if you study the picture on the box for like a really long time. Those are fun.
This is the puzzle that Josie bought for me during a day out Christmas shopping with Nana and Papa. I am excited.
It is a mere 550 pieces (tre jejune) but redeems itself in that only a few bits of the picture are in focus. The rest looks like....well....you know when a three year old wants to show you something, and they hold that thing two inches from your nose, and everything looks indistinguishably blurry? Most of this puzzle looks just like that. I started it on my own tonight. I am hoping that nobody else wants to help, because quite frankly, I am kind of a jerk when it comes to working puzzles with others.
I am not particularly companionable when it comes to puzzling. It's not that I don't want other people around, it's just that I don't want to spend my time helping them. I'm looking for the window pieces, anybody finds window pieces give them to me! Oh, and I'm also doing the kite strings, so look for those too! Geez people, this isn't an Amish barn raising, find your own dang pieces! I am usually the first to work a section of puzzle, and do you know why? Because I never spend my time helping other people. If you want to learn to be good at puzzles, that is my number one tip for you--don't look for other people's pieces. Rather than selfishness, I like to think of it as a good winning strategy. Oh, you didn't know that puzzling was competitive? Well, that shows you how much you know. Haven't you ever held on to a couple of pieces until right at the end, so you could put in the last piece yourself? Haven't you?
(By the way, tonight I let Josie put in the last three pieces to finish off the puzzle. So maybe I am not quite the puzzle barracuda that I fancy myself to be.)
Anyway, don't you think it's wrong to try and fit pieces in without regard to shape? Tonight Pie was bugging me with his "any piece could work" plan of action regarding the sky. He took each sky piece and tried it every-which-a-way in every open spot--without even looking at the shapes! Highly irregular, to my way of thinking.
Yes, I think next year my family will probably set aside a whole puzzle for me to do all by myself.
