Puzzles and lazy days

Sky, harbor, and boats

I think this is one of the prettiest sky pictures I've ever taken. It's one of those sky situations that comes just before a weather change. We are just finishing up a short-lived heat wave, not terrible like some parts of the country (and world) have just endured. But it only has to get into the low eighties (28°C) for me to be feeling like wilted lettuce left out in the sun. This may be partly due to my age, since the past five years or so have seen a definite diminution in my ability to function in the heat. It might be also partly due to having become a Pacific Northwest denizen, too, since we don't usually get much toastier than that, even during the hottest days of summer. We never reached 90°F this year, thank heavens.

It astounds me that it has already been a week since I last wrote in here. How is it possible that time has accelerated so much that I barely feel recovered from one week before the next one is at hand?

How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?—Dr. Seuss

 I know this happens to many of us as we age: what used to seem like a long time, such as a week or a month, now seems to pass in the blink of an eye. Already I am seeing the signs of fall, leaves beginning to turn and fall from the trees, with winter not far behind. Didn't summer just begin? Or, alternatively, in the Southern Hemisphere, winter? One of my blogging friends who lives in Australia has been showing the spring flowers emerging, with their tulip festival coming up soon. It heartens me to realize that seasons are not constant on our gorgeous planet, but vary depending on which side of the equator you are living on. What a beautiful world!

This is one of those mornings when I have little to no idea what I'm going to write about. I'm happy that I can still see well enough to get up, make a cup of tea, and come back to my comfy bed, prop myself up with pillows and open my trusty laptop and see what comes out. I will continue to do this for as long as I can.

I will have my fourth eye jab on October 7, and already I look forward to that date, and experience, not only with dread, but also with hopefulness that these treatments are slowing down the progression of my geographic atrophy. Nobody is making me take them, but I wouldn't miss them on purpose, no matter how much I don't want the treatment. Anything that will keep the central vision on my remaining eye from going away sooner is worth it. When it is gone, I will no longer be able to do this, because I will not be able to see anything but a blur instead of seeing the words on the page. You can get used to pretty much anything, but losing one's ability to see takes some special determination to deal with. But I am not the first to go through this, and I will always retain my peripheral vision. I'll not be dealing with total darkness.

Another activity that I will probably have to give up is doing the NYT puzzles that have become part of my daily routine. It all started with Wordle, the five-letter puzzle that gives you six tries to figure out. I am currently on a streak of around 150 days without a miss, although I did cheat once or twice by looking up the answer online when I got stuck. Then I started doing Connections, a word game that gives you sixteen disparate words, and you can make up to four mistakes before the game is over, trying to figure out the connections between the words. I enjoy that game the most when I'm playing it with someone else, usually a coffee shop companion. My friend Steve wakes up in the middle of the night and solves both Wordle and Connections before arriving, so he will sometimes give me hints. Sometimes the game seems very easy, but usually I am not successful at getting all of the categories.

More recently, I've started playing Strands. The game begins once you start finding words in a 6x8 grid, going up, down, forwards and backwards. The goal is to find words that fit into that day's designated theme, but puzzlers only have a hint to that theme. The trick is, the theme is itself one of the words hidden in the grid. I find it very satisfying to play this game and don't usually miss a day.

And lastly, I play the NYT Mini Crossword Puzzle. It's a short one, taking usually under ten minutes for me to figure out the words, although the biggest, larger crossword puzzles usually don't keep my interest long enough to finish them. I put them in the same category in my mind as jigsaw puzzles, which some people love but I find boring.

Working these four puzzles every day gives me a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, and I'll miss it when I can't do them any more. For now, I am enjoying each day. I learned online that playing these games increases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that makes one feel good and helps with focus and the ability to pay attention. Makes sense to me. In any event, I don't usually work any of them until I am at the coffee shop with my iPad.

And I think it's probably a good thing for me to start doing some volunteer work. I've done a little at the Senior Center lately and think maybe that would be a good place to start doing more, or perhaps the Assistance League, where my friend Steve volunteers. For five years I volunteered to help people write their End-of-Life directives, but the program was curtailed; it's only recently that I've begun to miss volunteer work, and I can certainly do plenty even with my low vision. Just thinking about it gives me a little frisson of energy, so that will be my next project. 

I do enjoy just small little activities, always trying to get my daily steps in, deciding what to eat for the day, and hanging out with my guy. My life is pretty full, and even though I can see how it has been changing lately, I can still feel great pleasure and satisfaction in every day. Today will begin, after I get up that is, with doing my daily exercises and a meditation session, then heading off to breakfast with my friend John. I have much to be thankful for, and once again I am reminded of my virtual family, that means you, and how much joy you give me every single day. I'll read the posts that appear in my news feed and comment on them, happy to learn how you are doing in your own little corner of the universe.

My tea is gone, SG still sleeps quietly next to me, and it's getting to be time to wrap up today's effort at a post. I do hope you will have a great day and week ahead, and that we will meet here once again next week. Until then, I wish you all good things.