How I hate to learn from the news or on Facebook that there’s a celebration for a special day and I’m unprepared. I love celebrating and have some special days marked already – like Pie (or Pi) Day on March 14 which I haven’t missed since I discovered it. With that in mind, I’m letting my readers know ahead of time that January 29 is designated as National Puzzle Day. All kinds of puzzles qualify – crosswords, Sudoku, and jigsaw puzzles ranking as my favorites.
I’ll admit that I don’t really need to get a named day to do puzzles. Rarely does a day go by without a crossword and/or Sudoku, but my true love is a jigsaw puzzle of not less that 1,000 pieces. My history with them goes back to childhood when that was one of the things my sister Beth and I could do together without an argument erupting. She always took the sky with a good eye for variations in all that blue. My daughter joined the team early in her life with the two sons taking scant interest with one exception. An apple puzzle, repeating an almost identical pattern stumped Anna and me so Mark with his mathematical mind stepped in to finish. We glued that one together so we would never have to do it again.
I don’t really mind repeating a puzzle, especially since I have a few favorites. My other jigsaws are kept in the storage room out back, labeled and in order by their last use so that I rotate without always going back to those favorites, and I have taken to picking up a new one as a souvenir when we travel. Since I have workaholic tendencies, jigsaw puzzles are my impetus for taking a holiday. They are addictive enough that I will leave the work alone until the puzzle is finished so I have established a policy of a jigsaw puzzle on every official holiday. Of course, a visit of any length from my daughter is another good excuse to get one out, and I add a puzzle day to August which has no formal holiday.
So be prepared if you are a puzzler, you have a good excuse to do one of any variety on January 29. In next Monday’s blog, I have another heads-up planned for a different day. Watch for it