Little Things

  Little things disturb me. How many times did I wake last night thinking about little things?

There was the One Big Thing, that I had to force out of my mind to be able to drift back to sleep. 

The little thing: I have been doing jigsaw puzzles with "the Puzzle Ladies" ever since I moved to this apartment complex. 7 years? 8 years? Rose was the first to leave earth for the Great Beyond. Followed by her sister, Teresa, a few years later. Earlier this year, Brenda had enough of Pancreatic cancer, and gave up. "I don't think I can stay here anymore," she told me and Carolyn. We thought she meant in her apartment. Two days later she was in a pre-death coma.

I kept doing puzzles on the sunroom table, because Francisco was doing them. He would never set up a puzzle; did like to finish them. One day we were working together and he has to leave. What did he ask? "So you want me to stay/" I said, "yes,' then said, "no, I am not your boss, do what you want to do." That was the last time he helped put together a puzzle. After a while, I stopped setting up new puzzles. 

People complained. So I relented and started new puzzles. Got into a fight with ladies in the office. After a while, I set up a new puzzle  ~ the frame, flipped all the pieces. I was glad that someone finally finished that puzzle. I had planned to leave it undone, indefinitely. I started a small Santa puzzle. I was glad someone was doing that puzzle with me. Except for the little things. 

We use puzzle box lids to sort pieces. The system was that we put those lids, stacked, crosswise, to the left and right to the puzzle. We would keep the puzzle box with the image, in back of the puzzle. I was leaving it to the side, to make it easier to see the image. So they come along and put that box on top of the puzzle in the middle.Francisco used to put the box on top of puzzles when we were done. I would take it off the puzzle and set it to the back. So I assumed maybe Francisco was helping again.

Later the person would take all those lids, and stack them on top of the puzzle. Why? Ladies used to come check on progress of puzzle daily. Why cover up the puzzle? Must be someone new to the building. I considered leaving a note, telling the person to STOP DOING THAT! Instead, I just keep removing the lids, putting them back to the left and right of the puzzle. Person not getting the hint. 

So that is the Little Thing that was disturbing me. Some newbie comes along deciding to be the Alpha Lady? Assuming it is a lady. I am going to do puzzles the way I want to do them and screw you?