puzzles

I usually consider myself a problem-solving kind of gal. I do Sudoko. I can conjugate verbs. I know how to find the area of a triangle. I can visualize things in 3-D (a very helpful talent when trying to imagine what a bathroom floorplan will look like and how high you should build the shower walls.) The trouble is, seeing something doesn't necessarily mean making a decision is any easier. But that's another topic for another time.

So, yes I can generally figure out things and how they are supposed to work, except anything related to physics. Worst subject ever.

Today, I finally got a chance to sit down and play around with the serger I bought three weeks ago and hadn't even taken out of the bag. You'd think I would have got right to the challenge of it all, but... nope. The sad thing is, the first thing I sewed with it was my brother's underwear. Gross, huh?

Oh please. They were brand-new and too long for him. So, yes, the serger got broke in by hemming the waistband on some Hanes boxer-briefs. SAD.

But, the darn machine is a nightmare. It's got more levers and switches than any power tool I've ever come across. Right now, I'd take a table saw over this gadget. I've only mastered one stitch - and that took an hour just to figure out all the different things I had to switch around and then rethread. Now that I want to do a three-thread overlock stitch, I had to turn one lever, switch one needle, change the presser foot and of course, rethread the entire machine, in the right order. I gave up tonight because I couldn't tell the difference between the blue dots and the green dots which are supposed to show you how to thread the thread through all these little guides and such.

Is this a sign that I'm getting old? Or lazy? Or maybe I'm just not as smart as I thought I was. One thing I know - this is why I never liked puzzles. I need instant gratification. I need to see some progress - a stitch on fabric, a row of knitting, a completed square of numbers in Sudoku, not billions of pieces on a table in no particular order, just waiting to get chewed on by the baby.

Puzzles can wait until I'm really old. Or until there's no danger of losing pieces. Or until I have no brain cells left in my head to figure out other, better, more enticing problems - like how to tile a mud-set shower or why my kids always fight.