I am not good at puzzles. I mean when the family leans into a thousand piecer I am a contributing member, but not the champion. The Rubik's cube came out the year John and I were engaged and when one showed up under the Christmas tree he and four brothers hovered over it for three straight days. I talked with his mother. To this day I have never gotten the right colors in their proper places. My daughter in France says that her friend is teaching her how to solve it with her eyes closed. I have no idea how.

 

Recently puzzles have shown up in real time. The registration for the car expired, and to get it inspected we needed to be able to drive it to the mechanic and the battery had sputtered to a stop. John charged it, but could not find the old registration in the glove box, and there was no way to pass without it. A few days later he went on line and unearthed the right form, paid electronically and was ready to drive it to the shop but the battery had gotten tired of waiting and refused to kick in. He hooked it up again but when he went to turn the key the interior lights shone while the engine stayed cold.

 

A separate constellation of issues appeared in the basement. There was water, though it had not rained. He tagged the washer as the culprit but I had not done any loads that day. The sump pump was feeling ornery and refused to drain, so John spent a few soggy hours taking it apart and replacing a broken something or other. John tried to solve the cause of flooding given the clues presented, yet the pieces didn't fit. Plus it is expected to rain again, which may or may not exacerbate it all. 

 

While I am not drawn to mastering colored cubes, I am in the minority. At least if you can point to the number of sales. My mother was an avid fan of the crossword puzzle in the New York Times, and rose to the challenge of combing her extensive vocabulary for the eight letter word with a p in the middle meaning responsible. She and a million other readers. Her grandson Benjamin is clever with Scrabble tiles. I wish she had lived long enough to play with him. 

 

I wonder if finding the corner piece with a bit of gray, or crafting a twenty step strategy for solving a Rubik's cube is good practice for life. I am not sure but I hope we can end up with a dry basement and a working car.