Puzzled Out (The Stretch!)

I picked up a Christmas puzzle to do over break. It had a horse on it, so I thought it'd interest Carrie!

Picking it was the first mistake. Large swaths were too similar in color There were subtle variations, but I wasn't able to discern them easily (It required squinting at pieces to be side by side in full sunlight!).

The second mistake was thinking half the table would be enough room to work with. Initial progress was slow and I didn't have enough space to sort the unused pieces into piles of my liking. I had to be creative by spreading them out into the box lids and on the table.

Which brought about a terrible possibility: Consumption. Kila loves paper products. She'll tear into cardboard boxes from Carrie's amazon shipments and if a kid or a cat knocks a letter or paper towel onto the floor I'll find the pieces not long after!

Shane and Carrie played along some, but when the progress was slow they wandered off and I had to grind out progress on my own.

It took a while.

Over a month.

I started the puzzle around December 20th and I don't think I finished it until around January 26th. I would've loved to play Marvel Champions over the break with Shane, but the puzzle kept the table occupied (assuming he'd play). I'd hoped to do family gaming, but the most we ever did were some basic cards (Rummy).

I kept putting off working on the puzzle because no one was interested and the progress was so slow. At certain points, I was reduced to making a piles pieces based on their number of tabs. Then I'd mechanically try each one. It stopped being fun and became more about a refusal to being beaten. 

When I got close enough to finishing, first Shane and then Carrie showed some interest again. The puzzle had the last laugh. There were three pieces missing. Whether it was one of the times Shane had knocked a box off the table, a cat, or the many times I pulled everything out, they were nowhere to be seen. Oftentimes, when I can't find a piece I wonder if it was lost. This time, it was fact.

It was a victory, but a pyrrhic one. I learned a lot. Like, don't use half the table next time. And be wary of pictures that aren't busy enough by color or artifacts to use as reference points. 500-1000 pieces seems to be the range I find the most fun with anything over that feeling like work. While I'll start a puzzle and work on my own, I prefer if someone else shows up from time to time to share the little victories.