Boredom Buster

Does waiting still infuriate and frustrate you?

Try crossword puzzles.

You are probably saying, "Not again?!"

I have rhapsodized solving crosswords ad infinitum in my past blogs and here comes another one. (Next to Adrian, my one and only grandson, crossword puzzles come next in the number and frequency of my posts.)

Well, they do lop hours off unproductive time—snaky queues in banks, interviews, and supermarkets; long trips and traffic snarls; boring soliloquy and colloquy. Occasions when crossword puzzles can come in handy are endless.

The stack of crossword puzzles above are especially precious to me because they were sent by my best cousin Minna from New York before she had a stroke that strapped her to a hospital bed for sometime. She took time to patiently clip this tall pile of puzzles from her dailies and to buy me a book (the latest among the many she had already sent me), for which I will eternally be grateful.  

She's on the mend now (thank you, Lord!), with overflowing tender loving care from her siblings. As I continue to pray for God's mercy and grace of total healing, I bring around a dozen or so cut-up crosswords in my bag as my ammo against boredom.

And oh, I just read a medical bulletin that says, people who indulge regularly in crosswords are less likely to have dementia, a dreaded disease among the aging. Now, that is a bonus to boredom busting. 

I have to remind Minna to keep some for herself before she gets this bright idea of sending me more. At a certain age in the future, will I, honestly, need to remember the vibrant days of my youth?