These are strange days indeed. For the last 10 months my life revolved around the puzzle like the Earth revolved around the Sun and now that I'm done with it I don't know what to do with myself! I come home after work and there are no jigsaw puzzles to fit, no giant puzzle to assemble and I suddenly realize that I have so much more space now. It's weird indeed.
Looking back it surprises me that I had the patience and the will to pull such a stunt. At first I freaked out, wondering as I sorted the first 6000 pieces of section one where I had left my sanity. But I nailed that one, and then sections 2, 3 and 4. Ok, so I didn't mix the bags. Big deal. I didn't have the space to do it like that anyway and I'm perfectly at ease with my "one section at a time undertaking". It takes away not a whit of joy or feeling of accomplishment having done it by sections. It was crazy enough that way. Anyway, the question that has been bugging me ever since I finished is: "Well, what do I do now?" I mean, the puzzle is just sitting there, well, not exactly sitting, because puzzles can´t sit (This is supposed to be a joke and you can laugh now) doing nothing separated in 24 parts piled in sets of 4 containing each one a section divided in six. What? By looking at the pictures you'll get the idea. I gotta frame the thing. Well, how exactly do you frame a gargantuan puzzle such as this one? I have no idea. You see, I'm good at doing crazy things such as assembling a giant puzzle but I am quite incompetent when it comes to working with your hands and building stuff, unless it's a lego. I am not good with tools and I'm definitely not a handyman. I can change a light bulb, put a nail to a wall and hang a picture and that's it. And my scrambled eggs and spaghetti are incredible I've been told. But that's where my talents in the house and the kitchen end. So I'm seeking help, asking here and there if there are people out there with the knowledge I lack. You know, what kind of materials to use, how to glue it, etc, etc. I haven't figured these things out yet. And once I figure them out I gotta solve the ultimate problem: What will I do it with it in the end when it is framed? Will I keep it to myself, will I donate it to an organization such a hospital or an educational center. Will they rename a room of a building if I do so? Will some eccentric millionare who wants the puzzle in his living room get in touch with me so we can discuss business? If I sell it, how much would I sell it for? Could I sell it? I mean, come on, you can understand that one can get emotionally attached to things and this puzzle is my baby. I'm not kidding.
So you see, it's not over yet. The good thing is that the puzzle is complete and my worries deal now with operational problems. I hate operational problems. I think I need a manager. Someone who would take care of all these things. Just lika a musician who worries only about writing songs and has a manager who books him gigs and worries about the airplane tickets for a show scheduled in Sri Lanka.
A crazy idea that I got while writing this was to get in touch with the people at Google Earth and tell them that I'm gonna be assembling the puzzle on the top of the building I live and ask them to take a picture of it from outer space or wherever it is that satellites fly within. Then people could see the puzzle using Google Earth and someone could create a video titled "Weird stuff picked up by Google Earth" and create an overnight sensation. Maybe.
I will call these 2 pictures "Giant puzzle divided sitting there doing nothing under a piece of furniture that works both as a sofa and a bed".
