Yesterday was a nice day; sunny and in the high 50's. We took advantage of the spring-like conditions and worked out in the yard. The Wonderful Spouse raked up the leaves and dead grass weeds in the yard while I worked in the flower beds. One flower bed in under a bunch of trees, so I had to rake last years leaves out of it (we had snow on the ground before the leaves fell, so never got to rake the leaves last year). In the flower bed next to the house, I removed all the hay that I had laid down as a winter mulch. All the hay went into the garden area, to be roto-tilled in sometime in may. All the leaves went into low spots, at the edge of the woods, that we are trying to build up a little.
It was a perfectly lovely day until I discovered that at some point I had lost my wedding ring. I realized it before I started removing the hay from the upper flower beds, so I must have lost it while raking or dumping the leaves. The Wonderful Spouse and our neighbor went through the piles of leaves that I had dumped and the flower bed that I had raked, but to no avail.
I lost my ring once before, about 7 years ago. I lost it during the winter when there was plenty of snow on the ground. I was taking the dogs up to the pen, slipped and caught my balance with my left hand. In the process, I got a lot of snow on my hand, and not thinking, I shook my hand to get most of the snow off. My fingers, being cold, had shrunk, so the ring went flying off. I looked for it, but I couldn't find it, and later WS looked too - but no luck. I figured at that point it was gone for good because where I had lost it was on a steep slope and during the spring thaw the water rushes down the slope until it forms a mini-brook that leads into the woods. Much to my surprise (and by a total fluke), 6 or 8 months later the Wonderful Spouse happened to find it. I have been very careful with the ring since then, always removing it if I was going to be working outside in the cold.
But yesterday was nice and warm, so I never thought to remove it before doing yard work. My fingers certainly didn't shrink up, so I'm not sure why it became loose enough to come off without my realizing it. Although my wedding ring is my most prized possession, I am not devastated by the loss. It is just a symbol of what we have shared for the last 17+ years. Losing it doesn't change any of that. I would certainly like to find it, but am realistic and realize that it was probably lost in the worst possible place (Murphy's Law) and is now out in the woods - not to be found in my lifetime.
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