Solved!

I've been a bit obsessed with the Rubiks Cube my daughter got from her uncles this Christmas.   So much so that I ordered a competition cube for me as well as the lubrication oil of a very specific viscosity needed to lubricate said competition cube.

The new cube arrived and it moved much more freely than my daughter's tactile cube, which is saying a lot, because her cube moves quite well.   When I got the lubricant I took the cube apart completely, including the screws and washers and followed an exhaustive list of spots needing lubrication before reassembling the cube.

The next thing I had to do was tension the cube appropriately.   This is to taste, but considering I have no experience in speed solving (or really solving at all) I was at a bit of a loss for a while, tightening here and there until I got a feel for what was too loose and what was just right.   I think I have it about right now.

I've been taking both my cube and my daughter's cube in my purse all over the place for when I have a spare moment.   I learned the basic algorithms for solving the cube.   The "beginner" ones that go in a certain order without taking into account any specifics of the scramble.   There are lots of shortcuts, requiring memorizing lots of additional algorithms.

I watched one video that said, "you should be able to solve the cube in under a minute-and-a-half before starting to learn these moves."   Well heck, I'd only solved it a handful of times without messing up at some point, having to backtrack and redo steps before successfully returning the cube to its original state.   I'd never timed myself.   I'm not sure I was solving the cube in under ten minutes.

But I understand more now why he might say that.   The more solves I do, the better an understanding I'm getting of how the pieces move relative to how you're rotating parts of the cube.   Even so, when I look at the long list of shortcut algorithms and try to match them to the various scenarios I encounter in my scrambles, well, I mostly go back to the basic method.

I've had lots of people interested when they see me working on the Rubiks Cube.   I've had both cubes at two parties and adults see them and light up, recounting stories from when they were younger.   People love the tactile cube that's my daughter's.   I've shown people tips and they've tried to remember how they solved the cube from years past—some successful and some not.

Today, my husband took one of the cubes and started moving it around.   He asked what the process was and I took him through the first part before he had to take a phone call.   Later, we came back and I helped him solve it for the first time.   Tonight, I showed him again and he successfully solved it two more times.   I know him, he memorizes things quickly.   He's very good with anything physical. Right now, my best time is 2:17 to solve the cube, and that was with a lucky scramble that saved me several steps.   I'm betting by next week he'll be killing my best times.

The Big Boy Update:  My son came downstairs saying he'd had a nightmare—about seven minutes after he went to bed.  This is his typical nightmare of the "I can't get to sleep and want to spend time with you" sort.   Tonight he got on the bed, asked my husband and me to move over so he could fit in between us, and watched me teaching his father how to solve the Rubiks Cube.   He took over mine and worked on the first layer with my help until we sent him back to bed.   It would be fun if he got interested in solving the entire cube.   For now, he's more interested in moving the pieces around to see what he can figure out.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  After a doctor's appointment yesterday, my daughter wanted to know if she could go spend a little of her money at a store.   I agreed and we talked about how much money she might want to spend and if she wanted to buy things for her, the dog or her friends.   She ended up getting several things, one of which was from a selection of $5 perfumes.   She smelled over twenty testers until she finally settled on "Mysterious Beach."   Then this morning one of those moments happen when you're a parent of a blind child.   Sometimes your child will say something to you that shows just how much they don't know that we take for granted.   She came to me and asked if she could have a small paintbrush.  I asked her what she needed it for.   She told me it was for the fingernail polish she'd selected the day before—polish that she'll never see the color of.   She didn't even know there was a brush included in the tops of all bottles.   She was happy when I told her about it and interested when I showed her how it worked.   There was no way other than to let her feel the stalk and brush, getting polish all over her fingers.   But now she knows.