Jigsaw Table

Jigsaw puzzles are one of my favorite things.  I decide I want to have one "on the go" all the time.  Part of my day.

I was using a card table on the landing upstairs, but it was ugly.

So I go shopping.  "Look, I'm not going to have a glass of wine with a friend up there, I'm not going to read a book.  I'm going to work on the puzzle, look out the window to check on the world, perhaps sit on a comfy chair the odd time with a phone call."

I walked right by it at first.  It had been on the floor for awhile, had the odd ding here and there, so it was priced right.  Although I had no idea what my table might look like, this turned out to be the exact thing.  And it looked even better when the delivery guys said "where?" and I said "right against that wall".

So now I pour my second cup of coffee and head right up here.

I've discovered that you can do a jigsaw puzzle and listen to the radio at the same time.  They seem to use different parts of the brain.

I get my puzzles from the Pomegranate website.  They cost about $18 each, and a lot of them are from the Boston Museum. 

I order about 10 at a time.Takes me about 2 months to do a puzzle.

I choose the hardest ones -  take a piece and move it slowly back and forth over the puzzle pieces saying "Are you my mother?"

Not sure whether Frank Lloyd Wright's "Pencils" is hard.  Maybe it will be easy. 

But how about this "Huichol Yarn Painting!".

My system is chaotic - a whole bunch of a certain color.  Small completed sections dotted everywhere.  You can't believe the rush when you pick up one of these and it slips so smoothly and magically into the big picture.

I whisper a lot - "You are a genius!"  "Just look!  Did you see what I just did!".  My pretend friend giggles her congratulations and I go down for more coffee.

Reading

"The habit of reading is the only one I know in which there is no alloy.  It lasts when all other pleasures fade.  It will be there to support you when all other resources are gone.  It will be present to you when the energies of your body have fallen away from you.  It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live."
I know a lot of people for whom this comment would resonate.   
A friend comes for a visit. Her overnight case has one thing in it - a book.  A big, big book.  It looks like it weighs about 10 pounds.
I can feel the resignation in her voice.  "Yes, I know.  But what could I do?  I had already waited for 3 months.  The library called - and well, here it is".
We laugh as we get in the car.  I don't think she gets much of a chance to read while she's here.  But I hope she got that book read before she had to return it.
Many times I've been surrounded by women talking non-stop about the books they're reading.  "Have you read it?" is always the first question, and if you say "no" the flood gates open.  At the bridge table, Tim Horton's, or while the men are talking hockey, the women are talking books.  Oprah seems to be a good source, and I think they read their share of book reviews but it seems to me they get most of their ideas from each other.
And this is happening all on a background of "people aren't reading books anymore".  
I secretly admire these women.  I'm embarrassed when I admit to never reading books. I feel like I'm not keeping up, not dedicated.  
And I think this is true.  I'm part of the computer generation that is losing it's ability to concentrate.  I do most of my reading on the Internet and even my print reading is magazines and newspapers.  Everything I read is short.  Just the other day I noticed that the articles on one of my favorite web sites are becoming a bit long.  It's making me nervous.  I'm clearing my throat as I begin to feel my fingers getting itchy.  My eye is looking wildly down the screen to see how much longer this article is going to last.  
One of my web sites lets you read the full article for a limited amount of time, and after that you just get the shortened version.  This used to really bug me.  And then one day I realized that I liked the shortened version.
Even reading newspapers on the Internet, they often give you 3 paragraphs or less, and then give you the option of clicking "read more - "  Less and less I am taking that option, having learned all I wanted from the 3 paragraphs.  
I haunt the movie review web sites and read them all.  Watch the movie reviews and movie clips.  I wouldn't think of watching a whole movie.  It usually disappoints.
I haunt the book review web sites and read them all.  Increasingly we are given the option of reading the first chapter of the book.  I don't think I'll continue to do this.  I always like the book review better than the first chapter of the book.
I read a lot of blogs.  I read a lot of poetry.  But I don't read books.
I'm in bed right now.  Awake early, and reach for my computer.  I need to find out who wrote the words I quoted above.  In the search, I catch up with the world as we know it. A perfect start to the day.
You know that song?  "I know a little bit about a lot of things . . . . . . ."  That's me.
(The fellow who I quoted at the beginning is Anthony Trollope.  He wrote "The Way We Live Now" - a scathing 100-chapter of English greed (1875)