Last November, my siblings-in-law Ray and Allie gifted me with a huge '80s-themed puzzle for my birthday. My ADD is generally not friendly to such endeavors, but I persevered, knowing that the completed puzzle would one day adorn the wall of my arcade. This was a 159-day project. That's not to say that I worked on it every day. In fact, I was starting to feel bad for my mom, because this behemoth took up a card table in her living room for the entire five months. (More than once, I used "working on the puzzle" as an excuse to mooch a meal. I'd get a few pieces put together to lay claim to some progress, and "while I was over there," down a cheeseburger or two.) She was very gracious about the ordeal, never complaining to me directly about it. (My dad, however, let it drop that she was getting sick of it sitting in cryostasis. Maybe this was a parental version of good cop/bad cop, but I did make a concerted effort to get this thing completed after hearing the news.)
On April 27th, my friend Luke and I had an informal "puzzle party," and the once-formidable enigma finally met its match. It was one of those rare days, when the two of us hung out without my wife Adrienne, as she had other stuff going on. (That sounds intentionally vague.) The next day, I got a frame which purported to be the correct size, but perplexity ensued when it was discovered that the puzzle was about an eighth of an inch too high to fit. My wife and I were already at my mom's house by this point, squeezing one last meal out of the poor puzzle. Adrienne had the suggestion that we trim just a little bit off of the bottom pieces with a sharp blade. My mom had a utility knife on standby, because she's always been the handy one in the family. The proposal turned out to be perfect solution, and the puzzle was successfully contained. I was deemed mad when I contended that it could be done without resorting to glue, but all naysayers were squashed.
Brace yourself. Take in the glory of this, my 1,000-piece White Mountain '80s puzzle, immediately after framing. (Yeah, I know that you already saw it on the homepage.)
And here it is, finally in its arcade home. This puzzle dethroned my Dawn of the Dead poster, which I'd had on display for thirteen years!
Many thanks to Allie and Ray for hooking me up with this great time-waster. Not only was it a lot of fun, it kept me fed for five months!
"borderline uncomfortable details"? Wow. That's scary.