It's a puzzle

Our family likes to give gifts that test patience, knowledge, spatial, math and verbal skills. In other words we give each other puzzles.

This year Lester received another Rubic's Cube. He had one years ago when the craze first began. All of the family played with it, tried to work it, and very few of us succeeded. The new one has not been tried very much. It isn't even smudged with sticky fingerprints like the old one was.

My daughter-in-law who is a bird and flower lover gave me a beautiful jigsaw puzzle of a bluebird. I wasn't going to start it until I went to an Elderhostel to use it in some of my free time between classes.

However, since I haven't been doing quite as much these past weeks since my accident I decided I would start on the bluebird.

It wasn't long before both Lester and Shirley were at the card table with me searching for the correct pieces.

Marilyn, at the advanced age of 13, took one look at it and went into her room to listen to her CDs.

She doesn't know what she is missing! The exultation that comes from finding a piece you have searched for for several minutes can lift your mood immediately. Watching the picture come together can also give you a rush. It's not as good as painting the picture yourself but it does make your creative juices flow.

My favorite puzzles are the crossword puzzles.

I used to like word searches, but the crossword puzzles are much more fun. I do two every day, usually right before bedtime. The one in the Nevada Daily Mail and the ones in the Kansas City Star are different, so I can test my vocabulary with each. I notice quite a change in crossword puzzles in recent years. They used to be rather scholarly and use proper words only. Now the clues are often given within a hidden joke, and the answers might be in slang or even two words in one clue.

I don't like the frequent use of people's names as answers because I am not always up on the names of some sports figures or actors. But I usually get the answer by solving the other words nearby.

Now there is a new puzzle that everyone is talking about. It is called the Sudoku Puzzle. This involves math instead of words. The nine smaller squares are fitted together in one large square where each line must be filled in with numbers one through nine without repeating any one in either the vertical or horizontal lines of the larger square, or in any of the nine smaller squares.

I have tried to work these several times. It seems easy at first because they give you a few numbers to help you start. They also tell the degree of difficulty that each puzzle presents. I think the ones at the first of the week are easier than later ones. I have found however that the only easy part of these puzzles is filling in the numbers in the last smaller square after you have correctly filled in each of the other eight.

To do this I recommend you save the puzzle from one day until the answers appear the next day. It's better on your blood pressure.

I understand you can buy Sudoku books of puzzles that have the answers in the back. I may buy one of those and see if I can resist looking at the answers in the back.

Middle Age Plus people have good excuses for doing any of these puzzles.

Experts say that the more we challenge and use our brain the less chance we will lose it.

That makes working puzzles much more important than housework!