Puzzles and Games

Yesterday I found this tutorial on how to create a puzzle image. It was too late in the day to get involved with trying to master something new with a software that is still very new to me, too. But as soon as I saw it I knew what my blog for today would be about and which one of my images I would use to make the puzzle. As soon as breakfast was overI started working. Finally, several hours later, SUCCESS. It is actually a very simple process, if there wasn't a mistake in the directions. So, for well over an hour I had to work through several iterations of the picture trying to figure out the correction, The correction was given in the tutorial, but was glossed over so quickly that, for a newbie like me, it took some time to get passed some of my own mistakes made while trying to work with the correction. I was determined to get it right! And I think this shows something about my competitive spirit. I come from a family that has always enjoyed playing games and doing puzzles. My parents had a couples bridge group with whom they played, as well as socialized, for many years. My mother also played bridge often with her lady friends in the afternoon. My father's mother and my husband were unbeatable at checkers, which I found very frustrating. I think the very first game I was given as a child was the "Elsie" the Borden cow board game. Too bad I don't still have it. It is considered an antique and is now worth $55. My sister and my mother would often do jigsaw puzzles, and both of my granddaughters enjoy them now. I find them a bit more tedious because they take so long to do. I like games that provide a bit faster gratification. I taught my North Carolina grandchildren how to play "Jack Straws" this summer and they both enjoyed learning that one as well as "Concentration." We also played a lot of "Yahtzee." My favorite types of games tend to be card games; I, too, enjoy playing bridge, though the quarantine this year has halted that for now. My other favorites are word games, and I play two different kinds with friends and my sister on-line. There have been a few video games that I have enjoyed, too, but I try not to play them too often because I could easily eat up an entire day trying to win. Which brings me back full circle to my determination to get this puzzle image created today. While I definitely love games, and, like anyone, am happy when I win, they are just games. But when I am competing with myself, I will sit as long as I have to in order to figure our how to "win." I had already determined that I wasn't going to post this blog today until I had "won" this puzzle. Thank goodness I still have pretty much all afternoon to get other things done.