— छह हज़ार एक सौ पाँच —
We've had the Vincent Van Gogh
Sunflowers puzzle finished since before we left for Albuquerque, but yesterday the frame I ordered from Amazon arrived—it's not quite the exact right size, but at least it's not too small. I replaced a very old, small photo of Shobhit and me from the first year we were together to hang it
on the wall to the left of the guest bathroom and to the right of the entry nook.
I took four other photos of the progress we made on that puzzle, and I have now added them all to the end of my
Van Gogh Museum photo album. In fact, ever since Shobhit and I suddenly leaned into puzzle making this year, I should just start a photo album of all photos I've taken of puzzles, since I keep trying to reference previous ones and when we did them, etc. That will make it easier.
This
Sunflowers puzzle is probably the hardest one I have ever done. Alexia helped us start it when she came over to watch the slideshow of our trip to Europe on September 7; Shobhit and I finished it on October 1. It took us 25 days. And Shobhit actually did a lot more of it than I did. Anyway it was October 2, the very next day, that we left for Albuquerque, and it was at the International Balloon Fiesta "Official Merchandise Store" that I bought
our next puzzle, which shouldn't be anywhere near as hard. That'll be the fifth puzzle we've done this year (one with 1,100 pieces; one with 500; three 1,000). I'm finding that doing puzzles has multiple, tangible benefits—for me but also especially for Shobhit. It has a meditative effect, and gives us a break from screens. It's very analog, and exercises our brains in a way nothing else really does. I've now bought puzzles at two different places we traveled to, and I think it may become a new tradition of souvenir-finding, in addition to the Christmas Tree ornaments I've been getting on travels for two decades.
I don't plan to frame any others, though. I just really love that
Sunflowers puzzle. The only problem is that it doesn't perfectly fit the frame. It took some time and teamwork for Shobhit and me to get it in there last night without breaking up too many of the pieces in the process. The pieces pull apart kind of easily, and the only way to get it to slide onto the cardboard backing was to put it on top of the poster sheet first, that also came in the frame. Otherwise the pieces stuck to the parts that are in the cardboard for either securing in place in the frame or for hanging. Unfortunately this has resulted in a small white bar at the top and bottom, inside the frame. One of these days I'll take it back down and find a way to fix that. I'll either color the white paper black to match the frame or I'll just take the paper out since the carboard itself has a color relatively close to that of the painting. I haven't decided which yet.
— छह हज़ार एक सौ पाँच —
— छह हज़ार एक सौ पाँच —
We did all that while catching up on TV. Shobhit spent the day at the Tasveer Film Market, as yesterday was the first day, and he wasn't home until probably close to 8:00. But we still watched this week's episodes of
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and
Youth on HBO Max, and then
Slow Horses on Apple TV. We didn't even have time yet to continue with
Silo. But I needed to get to bed; I had such a bad night's sleep Monday night that I was barely able to stay awake at work yesterday. I felt not just drowsy but sort of heavy in the head. I felt definitively sleep deprived.
Thankfully I feel much better today. And today is the Opening Day for our
Madison Valley store, our first store opening since the small-format "Corner Market" last year right next to the new office, in the former Downtown PCC store footprint; and our first full-size store opening since the new Kirkland location opened in 2022.
That was the longest stretch between store openings since we went six years between Edmonds in 2008 and Greenlake Village in 2014. I'm still happy to get another stretch like that again, I'm still sick of store openings (we opened 10 between 2014 and 2022; six of those between 2019 and 2022 alone). We're still dealing with consequences of ill-advised rapid expansion, so I'd love to keep our foot on the brakes for a while. Honestly the only reason we're opening Madison Valley now is because it was delayed for a decade due to neighborhood push-back, even though the construction of that complex was always inevitable (and not PCC's doing: it was going up with or without us as the anchor tenant). I'm excited to have that store finally open, though.
— छह हज़ार एक सौ पाँच —
[posted 12:30pm]
