The Impossible Puzzle

I have always enjoyed doing puzzles. I know as a child, we would occasionally put a puzzle together over the winter months and in my dad's later years, he always had a puzzle that he was working on. When the children were small, I didn't have time for it (or didn't make the time), but over the past couple of winters I have resurrected my love for puzzles. I am partial to 1000 piece puzzles and if I'm not too busy, I can often put one together in about a week. Years ago, when my step-grandmother's (Vivien) items were being disbursed I received a small folding table and it is the perfect size for a 1000 piece puzzle.

About 3 weeks ago I started this puzzle.

Now, there are easy 1000 piece puzzles and there are hard 1000 piece puzzles. I realized right away that this was a hard one. Too many pieces had the same shape and almost fit, but not quite, and there were also a lot of one color so it was hard to tell them apart and figure out where they might go. I struggled with the border and as you can see in the above picture I actually couldn't complete the black on the bottom border. Pieces just didn't fit. So I started at the top and hoped the bottom would come together as I got to it. 

I slowly moved along and completed the sky, eagle and lighthouse. All that was left was the black bushes on the bottom. And they were just impossible. I would think I had it figured out and even get down to 6 or 8 pieces left and they just weren't the right ones. I would take all the black pieces out again  (about 40 pieces) and try again and again and again. I have never worked on such an impossible puzzle. Megan tried and also deemed it impossible. Julissa tried and came up with the same conclusion. The pieces were getting ripped and jagged from just taking them out and putting them back in so often.

I was determined not to give up on this puzzle, but it was going on 3 weeks of working on it and the last 10 days were just on the approximately 40 black pieces. Finally I got so frustrated that I just jammed the last 6 pieces in that didn't fit and called it finished. To the casual observer it looks like I completed the puzzle.

But if you look close, you can see where a few pieces don't fit.

I'm sure if you are reading this blog, you are convinced that you would be able to fix it, but I honestly don't believe you could. I really wonder if it is possible.

Some of my puzzles I keep and put together again, but not this one! I thought about packaging this one up and taking it to the Main Street Closet Thrift Store with a note including my phone number: This is an impossible puzzle. If you solve it please send me a picture.  I'm sure someone would be up to the challenge but I decided to save them the frustration. This puzzle is going in the trash can!