I finally received my bottom dentures. It’s been a month and a half, or a little bit over, that I had all my bottom teeth pulled out due to bone loss. It took a little bit of time for the gum to heal.

At my previous appointment, last week, I learned how to choose the appearance of my dentures. This hand held metal fan thing was brought out with fake teeth at the end of each prong, all different colors. The dental staff then would hold up a couple of the teeth to my upper real teeth and try to match the color.

Then, in what looked like paint strips, they compared a color strip to my gum to try to match the color of it. This was the last step before I received my dentures. They plug in the information into the computer and it will create the denture. I believe they are then 3D printed. Really wild to me.

I now have them in right now and have got to say this; They are so uncomfortable. And so white. Gosh they look really white. And the gum looks exceptionally pink. Thank goodness I have an upper bite so my really white new bottom teeth won’t be blaring in the eyes of the beholders. I think I like my mouth without them! I have a refit in a couple days so hopefully they will be a little bit more comfortable.

Moving on from my teeth… I have lately been trying to find new hobbies, and so I went ahead and picked up a 1,000 sealed piece jigsaw puzzle. I happened to purchase it from a thrift store for $3.00. It’s of a pretty tree with lots of pinkish-orangish leaves with different but same contrasts. Branches are visible in between the leaves, and the tree is surrounded by a sea of green grass/moss/ground cover. Pretty easy I thought.

First of all, 1,000 pieces is a lot of pieces. I did not realize how many pieces that is.

I finally got all the edge pieces, then sorted into two different piles; pink and green. However, there are so many sub categories of the pink and of the green. The off pinks, pinks turning into orange, orange leaking into green, etc. And then the different shades of the tree trunks. And the branches.

So I decided to pull up “sorting jigsaw puzzles” on YouTube and was amazed on how many videos were posted about jigsaw puzzles.

But my favorite ones were of the jigsaw puzzle competitions. I never knew there were jigsaw puzzle competitions. But, everything seems to be a competition, so why not jigsaw puzzles?

There are the regional jigsaw competitions held in different states that will qualify winners to potentially go to the World Jigsaw Competition. The World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation started in 2019 and premiered in Valladolid, Spain. They have group challenges, doubles, and single challenges. Timed challenges in where the puzzle that has the most pieces done will win.

The winning time in putting together a 500 piece puzzle stands at about 38 minutes, 45 seconds….. That is absolutely crazy.

The rate I am going on my 1000 piece puzzle is about 333 days if I am able to get my 3 pieces a day goal.

I better get on it.