New York Times Sunday crossword puzzles, 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles, Billiards, genealogical research and pin & ink drawing are just about all that keep me occupied these days.  Life is good.

Billiards

   Another resident, Bob Kaul, and I play a game of English Billiards every Wednesday morning.  We're fairly evenly matched, except this morning when he was off his game.  It's a nice change from 8-ball or 9-ball pool.  There are some videos on YouTube if you're interested in learning how it's played. My days of playing regular Billiards - three balls, no pockets in the table - back in the 40's and 50's seem to help me with angles and carom shots.  But the weekly practice is certainly needed.
   During our freshman year at Oklahoma A & M College - now OSU, having been upgraded to a full-fledged university - a group of us would shoot pool on the only pool table in the Student Union; the other five tables were for Snooker.  When we came from summer break, the pool table had been replaced with another Snooker table.  A much different game, requiring a higher level of skill than pool.  Something about smaller pockets, and a list of rules we always had trouble remembering.  Smitty, Kendig, Stolberg and Gaesser are gone now, just Cohen and me left of the Rochester contingent to carry the OAMC banner on.

Monday, 3 March 2020

Walked this morning - 2512 steps, so far.  Today is a day with an open schedule - nothing on, no stress.  I finished the New York Times crossword puzzle yesterday.  How do they come up with such challenges?  We have been working on jigsaw puzzles for a bit now - one on our dining table constantly, and one waiting.  Shirley orders them on Amazon; we like the Buffalo Games puzzles, especially those by Charles Wysocki.  When completed, we donate them to Westminster Village; there are several tables around the campus for puzzlers like us.
Have a great day!

Changes

Shirley and I have been trying to walk more lately, once before breakfast and again after lunch.  In the morning, we walk the halls and up and down stairs.  It's about a mile.  A little more than half that in the afternoon.  And we're now eating lunch later, it helps cut down our evening snack, so we sleep better, too.

Busy Body

When I agreed to become President of the Westminster Village Foundation, I didn't realize the amount of time it would consume.  I had been at it for about eight months, when I decided that all the changes I had wanted were either complete or in progress.  At that point, I submitted my resignation - Monday of last week.  Since then, my phone hasn't been ringing, no text messages, and my incoming email is down to one every three or four days.  What a relief!

Notes from a Jigsaw Puzzle Junky

Shirley and I have recently renewed our interest in jigsaw puzzles, as have some of our fellow Residents here at Westminster Village, Scottsdale,, so I was interested in learning the history of jigsaw puzzling.  Not being especially trustful of a Google search, I searched my own mind and found this:

Once upon a time, Og, the local Neanderthal artist, had just finished scratching out a reasonable rendering of the neighborhood Mastodon on sandstone (some say slate, but archaeologists aren’t too agreeable on the subject of the media used), when the baby of the family, Uzzle, grabbed it.  Before anyone reacted to the sudden display of agility by the toddler, the artwork had been tossed into the air (such an early display of hand speed!) and fell to the ground, which would ultimately be named Earth.  It broke into pieces.  Og, confounded by emotions of awe at the strength of his progeny and anger at the destroyer of his masterpiece, was about to kick the numerous pieces into a neighbor’s domicile (cave, to us).  However, his domicile mate, Egr, showing signs of her own degree of artistic talent, picked up the various sized pieces and proceeded to assemble them in proper order.  She had placed the oddly shaped pieces on a bed of soft mud, which quickly hardened (they were living in an area of dry climate soon to be named Ogizona), cementing them in place.  Egr quickly named this new creation, Egruzzle, unselfishly giving some credit to her offspring.  Centuries later, two archaeologists, Jigger and Sawdler by name, were amazed to discover this assemblage in a dark, dry cave (once considered a domicile).  Until carbon dating, and several visits to a local palm reader, the Neanderthal source was finally realized.  The secret of the origin of these puzzles, eventually named in honor of the two discoverers, has been a closely guarded secret – until now.

Brexit

I'm not surprised that Great Britain is pulling out of the EU.  When a country has to give up a good portion of it's sovereignty to a group of people who don't fully represent their culture and political philosophy, it's time to call a halt.