Une Petite Chaise Bleue

Soooo my French title is a bit pretentious but the story isn't. This is a tale of ...

 A LITTLE BLUE CHAIR

Once upon a time, there was a cute little blue chair that belonged to a cute little child. It got sat on, dragged around, climbed on, dinged, nicked, and played with. Eventually, the owner outgrew his little blue chair and the sad little chair got tossed unceremoniously onto mom and dad's weekly garbage pile. Poor little blue chair, all alone and sitting on the curb.

A nice lady who was out walking her dog spotted the little chair. This little chair is too cute to be dumped into the monstrous, groaning, squealing, trash truck she thought. She had her dog leash in one hand, but was able to pick up the little chair in her other hand and carry it to her nice, warm home.

The nice lady went to her friend for help. "Can you paint this little chair and make it cute and happy again?" she asked.

                                            ______________________________________________

Her friend loved to paint and agreed to try to help.  

First, she gave the chair a nice bath. Then, she sanded, filled holes and cracks, and sanded again.  Blue dust flew all around.  Finally, she got a cloth and wiped off all the dust.

The chair was ready, but ready for what?

It needed some fresh, bright coats of white paint. The chair looked sparkly and new.

Next, the friend had to think and think. What would make the small chair, and a possible new small owner happy and not afraid? Should she paint trucks, or fish, or storybook characters?

"I know," she said. "The little chair needs some bright colours and cute animals painted on it."

Since it was a very little chair, it was difficult to make tiny animals with paint. She tried using a pencil, but it left ugly marks, and she didn't like how the chair was starting to look when she added paint. It deserved a lot more thought, love, and detail.

Once again, the tiny chair got re-painted white. This time, the friend decided to make a pattern, or template for the chair seat. She used a square of construction paper and drew each animal. Then she cut and taped, moved them around, and reassembled until she was satisfied with their size and placement. This was a better idea.

After painting the background, she used erasable charcoal to draw the animals onto the seat.

When she was satisfied with her drawing, it came time to paint and add a few details. It took bright lights, a steady hand, and lots of patience to get all the animals the way she wanted them to look, but soon the chair was finished. With a quick protective gloss coat of fixative, the chair became bright and shiny and new.

                                           

                                                         ______________________________________

When the chair was finished, the nice lady came to pick it up from her friend. She took it to her little grandson's house where there was a beautiful quilt that coincidentally matched the animals on the chair. The little chair had a new home and had a cute, new little owner. Everyone was happy.

Aging Ain't For Sissies

 Found this blog along with about a hundred others that I started last year but didn't finish or publish. It's from October 2021. Thankfully, all is well with my leg now. I haven't laughed nearly enough these days, although the memory of this incident has helped.

My blogs might be on restart mode. We'll see how this goes. Gone are the days of trip info and celebrations. I don't want to write about bad news, the virus with which some people seem to be obsessed, the latest in trivia, sports teams, or movie stars. I also don't want to make this depressing. I hugely admire "older" female writers like Loretta Laroche and the now deceased Erma Bombeck. In fact, I once took a writing course and told the instructor that I enjoyed the writing style of these women. He looked down his nose at me and proceeded to tell the class about his science fiction, fantasy, vampire, and alien novel which he had completed and was trying to get published.

I knew that laughing is a good tonic (an old person term to be sure). I am going to try to paint some pictures with words describing events in my life. 

 I've always had issues with focus...this is nothing new. I've been called a squirrel more than once, although I think the word more likely comes from distracted puppies who are busy, but then get distracted when they see a squirrel.

Other than things like going down the downstairs to the freezer three times to get butter, and resurfacing from aforementioned basement on each occasion with clean laundry, garbage, and soft drinks, but no butter, I have all the usual aches and pains, a little Sunday to Saturday weekly pill suitcase, and memory farts that most "older" adults develop.

 Yesterday, my moans, groans, and creaking bones, weren't the only sounds emanating from me. I did something which caused me to laugh so hard, I forgot about all my aches and pains.

Part 1

I have some pulled tendons and a tear in the meniscus in my right leg. Add that to the moderate to severe arthritic knee and OUCH. I've gone to physio...fun. Armed with a wad of exercise sheets that I've been attempting regularly, plus icing my leg each day, there has resulted in some improvement. Yesterday morning, after icing my leg, I was feeling a tad chilly and crawled back under my covers. Since I was wide awake, I decided to use my time wisely and pulled out my empty boxes to sort my pills into the appropriate days of the week. I placed them on my nightstand.

Part 2

As I neared the end of my sorting and organizing from bed, I dropped a pill...on the floor. Annoyed, I hung my head and torso down the side of the bed, being careful not to uncover my cold legs...an odd angle but it worked. I located aforementioned errant pill just under the wooden bed frame, picked it up, and proceeded to tell my upper body to get back onto the bed. As much as I told my body to do this, it refused to budge.

Part 3

I tried lifting myself by pushing on the bed frame, and I attempted pulling myself onto the nightstand, but it was all in vain. I was left with the only option I could think of...crawl out of bed, onto the floor. I put my palms on the floor and walk myself forward, being careful not to further injure my leg. As I did this, my pajama bottoms decided they wanted for the most part, to stay in bed without me. I started to laugh and laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Part 4

As I landed on the floor and turned myself over, still unsure how I was going to get back up, the words from the old commercial, "I've fallen and I can't get up" were ringing in my ears. My pants were around my ankles, I was grabbing for anything that could pull me up, and hubby walked into the room. Without batting an eye at the contorted half clad mess on the floor, he asked, "Are you doing your exercises?"

I laughed and laughed for the next five minutes. He must have thought I was insane. Nonetheless, as it often is, the day was much better after that. 

Stuff, Nonsense, and Thoughts on Puzzles.

I'm not one to tar every feather with the same brush or however the saying goes.  I must confess though, having experienced a lot of adventures, worked at many jobs, and tasted innumerable exotic foods, I'm pretty set in my ways about some, but not all things. 

I'm at an age where I might say, "Why should I go to a restaurant and order frog's legs, when in fact I know I prefer chicken?" By the way, only people who haven't eaten frog's legs say that they taste just like chicken. That's like claiming lobster is exactly like eating liver or vice versa. 

I can also tell you there are certain experiences which I didn't like the first time, and don't need to do again, but that's another blog topic.

I  enjoy word puzzles, crosswords, and the like. In the more recent technological years, Candy Crush was the rage and now, I am playing Wordle along with the rest of the planet (except for Homer Simpson) it seems.  ***(found on facebook but don't know who owns it to give credit)

As with so many things in the age of technology, I kind of miss the hands on experiences. I tried and disliked books on tablets. I'd rather have a bookshelf rife with paperbacks that I may or may not finish reading before the big dirt nap.

Recently, I retrieved a jigsaw puzzle while decluttering my office. Well, this could be ok to work on from time to time I thought to myself.  How hard can it be? It's tangible and I can putter at my own speed. Besides, my brain needs all the stimulation it can get these days.  ***(note - need to try to think to myself more often)

THE PROCESS

DAY ONE - I proceeded to dump all 500 pieces onto our coffee table and examined the box. First, I noted that there was a huge "Art Gallery" banner across the top which covered some essential picture parts. How annoying. Besides that, none of the pieces looked like the colours on the box. In fact, they all looked like brown cardboard. Oops. 

 After spending half an hour flipping them all the right way around, I was done for the day. Jigsaws are exhausting.

DAY TWO - I spent a brief time sorting by colour and potential buildings, bridges, people, water, trees, and so on. Time for another rest.

DAY THREE - Fun. I found some cute little pictures that looked like parts of people and animals and proceeded to assemble those. Then, I automatically started pulling all the flat edged pieces out of the mix, piling them around the edges of the table. 

 At this point, the memories started flooding  back. I remembered all the reasons I hated jigsaw puzzles and have avoided them over the years. It wasn't that I had to turn all the pieces over before beginning. It also wasn't that many of the shapes look the same and no amount of fist pounding gets them to fit into places where they don't belong.  The truth was more complex. 

I remember attempting, and abandoning a few of these with my parents when I was a kid. I was always excited and eager to get started. Then came the first blow. Dad would inform me I had to help make the frame with all the side flat pieces first, before filling in the middle. Ugh...I hated that and usually walked away.   

                                                

As an adult, my years prior to retirement involved working with small bodies, small fingers, undeveloped brains, and many wooden puzzles. I was often frustrated and developed a further dislike for puzzles when, at the end of a work day, I'd find a dozen or more of the dreaded manipulatives with over 100 assorted random loose pieces piled on shelves. Some, were easier to reassemble than others, but I did not enjoy this task at all. Eventually, I realized that fewer options should be made available; that it should be reinforced that the children remove one puzzle at a time and ask for assistance rather than toss them willy nilly back on the shelf; and that there's always that one kid, who is able to assemble these in minutes...that was the one to ask for help.

DAYS - FOUR, FIVE, SIX - I walked past the puzzle several times a day, staring at it with intention. At some point I found a few pieces with words, dates, manufacturer etc. As it happened, those were in a border piece near the bottom left, so I put them together. Again, exhausting.

DAY SEVEN - Hubby had a look and located a few more pieces for edging. Grrr...he clearly subscribes to the "make the frame first" philosophy. I'm beginning to wonder whether there's a reason.

DAY EIGHT - Several people have told me that they become obsessed and need to sit until they're finished a puzzle. Apparently, I don't have that issue. I'm just glad I don't have need of the coffee table in the near future...or possibly ever. Why do people have living rooms anyhow? ***(yet another blog topic)

DAY NINE - A friend came to visit.  She sat on the floor by the coffee table for about five minutes and here's what happened. One edge piece remained missing. She insisted it was lost, not there, never included. Nonetheless, glad that most of the border is done.

So now, it's DAY 10. The plan is as follows. I will continue to stare at and add the occasional piece to this puzzle. I may or may not finish it one day, although I can almost guarantee there won't be another. Odds are good that I'll now work on it with more enthusiasm. After all, the dreaded border/frame, seems to have been miraculously almost completed.

UPDATE

DAYS 15 & 16

I found it! The missing border piece was there all along. I feel so accomplished. Progress is slow and steady. I've come to realize that morning is my best time to sit and search. I have more patience and more light. Honestly, despite the appearance of a little helper, I did it all myself!

FINAL THOUGHTS

I finished. |I completed the puzzle after a mere...oh, let's just say three weeks. I learned something new. Dagnabit ! These jigsaws have a grain. Had I realized this in the first place, I could have turned all the pieces in the obvious directions. Would I have been finished faster? Not likely, but still...an interesting fact that I didn't know about before. Will I do another? Not in the near future, but who knows?