Solving Sudoku

Sudoku? Yes, I have written about it before. I have spent the last several months trying to learn how to work those @@##@@**$$ puzzles. I don't think that I have made much progress. I bought a book of Sudoku puzzles and am working through it, doing one every couple of days. But almost every time that I try the Sudoku in the News & Record, I fail. I did solve one a couple of weeks ago so I'm not a complete loser. However, my patience is wearing thin.

I even tried the Chad, The Sudoku Professor. That would be some dork standing in front of a dry erase board with a puzzle on it. That's not real life. In real life, there's a time limit due to other activities, like taking the dog out and mowing the grass . Not to mention the pressure of knowing that your friends have all probably already solved it. Plus who gets the puzzle printed on a dry erase board?

The Queen works them with ease and is not shy about her mastery of the Sudoku. Bubba and Charlie both work them with what appears to be little effort. But I think that Charlie works that sissy Sudoku in the USA Today. Apparently the N&R Sudoku is that by which puzzle people are judged.  I even read on our church website, buffalochurch.org, that Pam Kane works them. My self-esteem may be dropping!

I skipped the puzzle yesterday because of a blood pressure issue early yesterday morning. Solving the ##@@** puzzle isn't worth a stroke. I picked up a newspaper this morning and started on the puzzle. It was a level 3. It would have been easier to grow hair on my head than to solve this puzzle. After about an hour with the puzzle and with a twitch developing in my trigger finger, I quit. Then I thought, "This is 2012, surely there is some machine that can solve the puzzle". There is. I used my shredder to transform the puzzle into packing material. Success at last!!!





After



Before