I'm Addicted

Now that I have your attention and you are wondering what I'm addicted to, I'll tell you............crossword puzzles!  It all started about 3 years ago when Harold was first diagnosed with cancer and we had to spend many, many hours in the hospital.  He would be in a room for several hours with an IV drip, or we would be waiting for tests and doctors and procedures.  The hospital tries hard to please patients with a TV in every room and plenty of snacks and magazines and friendly nurses to talk with.   There's even a great cafeteria, a chapel, and a piano in the lobby you can play.  But I still found myself with a lot of time to fill, and Harold spent most of the time sleeping during chemo.   So I went to the hospital gift shop to look for a book to read and found a display of puzzle books.  Remembering that I used to work crosswords as a kid - the Five and Dime store around the corner sold easy puzzle books for kids - I bought a couple of those books.   And that's when I got hooked.
     At age 65 I have accumulated a head full of useless information and trivia facts.  Working crossword puzzles brings to mind all that stuff that I forgot I knew!   Now I can use all that stuff I learned in college, all that Latin I took in high school, all the years of history and pop culture I have read about.  It really is amazing all the facts I can bring up in my head from the puzzle clues!  They say that "old people" should do things to keep the brain active (in a few months I'll be 66 and I think that qualifies me as an old person).   I work puzzles while soaking in the tub, or in waiting rooms at the hospital, or with my morning coffee (of course AFTER I do my daily devotions and Bible readings, the Lord comes first!), or sometimes in the evening before bed.   Harold always laughs at me for working at least 3 or 4 puzzles a day, and if there's a puzzle in a newspaper I'll work it.  
     I have to say I've gotten better at these puzzles.   The 'easy' ones I can do in about 2 minutes.  The medium ones take about 1/2 hour, and the hard ones are very challenging for me at this point.   Last spring I took an Amtrak train out to Massachusetts to visit my son and his family.  It was a 37 hour trip.  Yep, I took along 5 or 6 puzzle books, and about 2 dozen sharpened pencils with erasers in a nice plastic flip box.  What a nerd, huh?  Everyone on the train was playing with electronic gadgets or watching movies on an iPad or texting.  Here I was, an old school geek, playing with paper and pencil.  Oh well.   If a person is going to be addicted to something, I guess crossword puzzles are fairly harmless.    So, a word to my family:  if you ever wonder what kind of gift to get for Mom, how about crossword puzzle books?   hee hee..........