My morning started like any other this time of year.  I got up, looked out the window, cursed how much snow was suddenly on the ground, got dressed, and took the dog for his morning walk.  Then, things got interesting.  And by "interesting," I mean panicked and crazy.

Not more than ten steps into our walk, I noticed I had quite a bit of snow on my pant leg.  "Uh-oh," I thought, "I better brush that off, or else it'll melt and my jeans will be wet all day."

Seeing as how I was holding Zazu's leash with my right hand, I began brushing the snow off my leg with my left hand...the hand my wedding ring was on.

After only two brisk swipes at my snowy pants, I felt the unmistakable sensation of my wedding ring leaving my finger.  The next second or two feel like they happened in slow motion.  I briefly saw the ring sailing through the air, and then almost immediately lost sight of it against the white, snowy abyss created by eight inches of snow on the ground.

In that same second, I thought to myself, "Don't worry, just wait for it to hit the sidewalk in front of you, and you can follow the noise to it."

All I heard was silence.

So I took the dog back inside, told my wife what had happened, and bolted back outside to look for my wedding ring in 8 inches of snow, with more coming down and piling on top of my ring every minute.

An hour passed, and I had found absolutely nothing.  I was devastated.  My wife, who luckily thought the situation was more humorous than catastrophic, convinced me to come inside, have a cup of coffee, and calm down.

As I sipped my coffee, I had an idea.  It was a long shot, but maybe I could find somewhere close by that rents out metal detectors.  So I frantically googled "metal detector rental in fort collins."  The fates must have been taking pity on me, because I found a place!

I raced across town as quickly as my car (and the weather) would let me.  The employee at the shop was a little uncertain the metal detector would help; because my ring is made of Tungsten, which doesn't register on metal detectors as well as gold or silver.  I didn't care.  It was better than digging through the snow with my bare hands!

I raced home, and fired up the metal detector.  I was hoping it would only take a couple quick sweeps around the area to find my long lost ring.

I was wrong.

For an hour and a half, I swept up and down the area where I thought my ring could be. Occasionally, the metal detector would beep, filling me with hope, only to be dashed when I dug through the snow to find nothing.  Great.  20 bucks down the drain and still no ring.

I was literally ten seconds from giving up, when I decided to make one more sweep.  This time, I walked much further down the sidewalk than I had before (much farther than I though the ring could have traveled), and decided to focus on the other side of the sidewalk (I hadn't spent much time on that side before, because I was almost positive my ring hadn't gone that way).

I turned the metal detector sensitivity down a little bit to avoid any more dead ends; and I started to walk, moving the detector lightly over the top of the snow.

After three or four steps, I got a beep.  I swept over the same area, and it beeped again.  After several more sweeps to hone in on the exact location, I knelt down to start digging again.

"This is it," I thought to myself.  "I can't take this anymore.  Maybe I'll find it when the snow melts." I scooped one handful of snow out of the way.

My heart stopped.

There, in the freshly upturned snow, the unmistakable beveled edge of my wedding ring was just barely exposed to the open air.

As I pulled my ring from it's icy tomb, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  I had all but lost hope of finding it; and yet, there it was!  I slipped it back on my finger, and called my wife at work right then and there to tell her the good news.  She was thrilled, and also still giggling over the humor in the situation.  And then, finally, after the most stressful morning I've had in a long time, I could giggle with her.

So, that's how my day started.  Needless to say, I'm getting a smaller ring.

How was your morning?

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