July 22, 2023: A Ring To It

posted in: Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox | 0

OK, I have to share this story… Saturday night was our annual work party on the rooftop deck in our building. This year it was a little extra special because we were celebrating a retirement; guy had worked there 47 years… he was actually my first boss. So yeah, we did it up; we always do. As part of doing it up, I pick up the liquor on the way into the party; this year was the same. I pushed my full cart to the car accompanied by someone from Jewel pushing a cart full of ice. As I unload the cart, I pack my coolers, taking as much beer as I can out of the cases; after I was done, I threw the boxes away. On my way to the party; this is where the story gets interesting.

I’m driving, sitting in traffic, music blasting, hand out the window… all pretty normal. However, when I looked at my left hand, something was missing… my wedding ring! Holy shit; my heart fricking dropped in my stomach. I was looking at a naked ring finger for the first time since I got married 12 years ago. I’m dead! My mind raced, then I thought about stuffing those empty beer cases in the garbage can outside the grocery store; I remember hearing something at the time, but thought nothing of it… now, I was hoping that was it. I bust a u-turn in the middle of the crowded street; I know people were pissed. I needed to get back ASAP though… what if they emptied the garbage? Thankfully, I was only about 5 minutes away; flew back there, and pulled another u-turn right in front of the store, parking right in front of the garbage can. I started dumpster diving, taking everything out of that trash. Honestly, at that point, I didn’t care what was in there. As I made a little progress, I started panicking; where is it? I started moving stuff all around, digging deep, and there, at the bottom of the garbage can, was my wedding ring. Whew…

Frankly, it would have ruined what was supposed to be a great night. Sure, this losing of the wedding ring would have happened before I started drinking, so maybe I had a chance of survival, but… OK, we don’t have to walk down that path any more. We got it, and bam… back to the party; now, I was running late. That was the start of a hectic night, which included some last minute setup and some moving around of stuff when it started raining; it was all good though. Outside of missing a few guests I would have liked to be there, it went off as a big success. I was happy.

But man… talk about seeing your life flash before your eyes… I was thankful that I noticed it so quick; I was thankful it was where I thought it could be. This night could have been very different. As I was telling my dad who was at the party about the story, he told me one too… an even crazier one. He was in the Navy, on the ship, pulling in that thick rope to put around the post. As the rope was yanked out of his hand, it caught his wedding ring, and took it with it… my dad snatched the ring out of mid-air before it would have plunged to the bottom of the ocean; it would have been lost for sure. I wonder how many guys have stories like this… scary shit man. Now, I keep looking at my hand every other minute, to make sure it’s still there; hopefully I won’t have to go through this again. OK, moving on…

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