Attempt to improve my motor skills with puzzle only enhances my aggravation level

Another challenging thing about aging is that whatever skills you might have are aging as well.

So, I find myself at 71 with diminishing fine motor skills — not that they were great to begin with. I can’t even get my keys out of my pocket without dropping them. I have never completed any manual project of any kind without dropping something, usually screws and nuts. Often I have to give up and come back to try again.

Sometimes I am so incompetent that my wife gets frustrated watching me and just does it. Those are my favorite kind of projects. But don’t think I am sandbagging to get out of doing things. I really am that fumble-fingered.

My gross motor skills are even worse. Even level surfaces are obstacles.

Apparently my family has been reading up on how to help me improve my fine motor skills. In order that I might practice they bought me some jigsaw puzzles. I am not certain whether it will improve my skills, but I probably will have a lot time to practice because putting the puzzles together is driving me crazy.

And I haven’t even finished one yet. I opted for the 750-piece puzzle figuring it would be easier than the 2,000-piece puzzle which has a bunch of pictures of my granddaughter from birth to one year. It is darling, but I shudder to think of trying to sort that one out.

I have a special board to work on with a felt cover to keep the cats away from the loose pieces. It works to a certain extent but still occasionally I have to lift the board and dig out some pieces that somehow have gotten under there. The cats say they know nothing about it

At the rate I am going I should be finished with this one sometime around July 4th. It took me five days to find all the border pieces. Just turning over the upside-down pieces took seemingly forever. Puzzles are so addictive. I have to set times so I don’t work so many hours on it.

The puzzle, “Dog Days,” is the interior of an outdoor workshop with dogs. There are three yellow Labrador retrievers, a couple of boxers, a shih tzu, a grey striped kitten, a chicken, several rats, mice and a lady bug.

The colors are subtle shades which look very similar and everything changes with shifts in the light. And if you’ve seen one yellow Lab you know they differ little color-wise.

Oh, and there are lots of rope pieces hanging around to make things interesting. It is a beautiful picture, but I hope I never meet the sadist who designed this. I only have so much self-restraint and I am using much of it to keep from throwing this thing out the window.

I can’t wait until I am done. Then I can tear it back into pieces and hurl them back into the box. Then onto another.