What's a five-letter word for....

About four years and a half years ago I rediscovered the pleasures of physical exercise. I started out innocently enough with walking a local track, usually about two miles a day. One afternoon while I was strolling along a wonderful lady jogged past me. Wow, I can do that! After all, she was probably around the age of my mother and she wasn't even sweating.

I was up for the challenge. Feeling rather cocky, after all, I had been walking for quite a few months, I made it halfway around the track before becoming totally winded. And embarrassed. With the purchase of some quality running shoes and a good sturdy running bra I was eventually able to make it around that track many times and grew to love the resulting release of endorphins (mmm, endorphins). Soon that track became excruciatingly boring (almost as bad as an evil treadmill) and I escaped its confines for the excitement and shiny objects on the streets.

At about that same time I went to Nevada with Jan to visit her mother Phyllis. This was an incredible woman with an amazing outlook on life. In her late 80s her mind was still sharp as a tack with a wonderful sense of humor. I watched in awe as she did the LA Times crossword puzzle each morning, IN INK!!! For the few days that I was there she left me some easy blanks to fill in. Oh, she was clever, too. I was hooked.

Our local newspaper has a daily puzzle and after returning home I was doing it every day. Last year I graduated to the harder puzzles that come in the Sunday paper out of the Big City to the South. Each night when I go to bed I work on them for awhile, sometimes finishing, sometimes not. Occasionally at the end of the week if I am really stumped I will resort to Google for some answers.

A few of you have accused me of cheating but I don't see it that way. These crossword puzzles are my form of mental exercise. If I have exhausted my brainpower and am stuck, why not search out the clues rather than just turn to the answer page?

Zeus has now taken up the challenge and is doing the local puzzle each day. I love it.

Now if you will excuse me, it's time for my exercise. But before I go, can anyone name the painter of "Knight, Death and the Devil"? I'll give you a hint. Five letters, starts with "d". And no cheating.

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