No one could possibly mistake Nyel for a Hobbit. Although he is shy (as are Hobbits) and is capable of great courage and amazing feats under the proper circumstances (as are hobbits), there the similarities end. He’s not short and stubby. He has a very respectable beard (which most Hobbits cannot grow) and his feet are neither covered with brown, curly hair nor do they have leathery soles. He is not fond of beer, does not smoke a pipe, and I’m not sure if he is adept at throwing stones.
No. Nyel is not a Hobbit. Certainly, he is not Frodo Baggins. But he is on a quest for a ring. His wedding ring. All of a sudden yesterday, it went missing. “I was drying my hands after washing them at the kitchen sink and I noticed that it was gone,” he told me. I was surprised at how upset he was and, also, suddenly aware of how thin he’s become – thin enough so that his ring could fall right off.
First off, I reached down into the garbage disposal and felt all around. A few bits and pieces of a lettuce core (I think) but that was all. We aren’t turning it on until we find the ring. We retraced his steps (actually, his wheelchair tracks) in the carpet. I looked under all the furniture. I stripped the bed. And Nyel called the Ocean Beach Clinic where he’d had an appointment yesterday morning. I looked in the car and outside in front of the porch where the EMTs had transferred Nyel from wheelchair to car and back again. All to no avail.
I woke up this morning wondering if a metal detector would work inside the house. My almost-cuzzins Judy and Ed were here twice during the summer with Ed’s “retirement toy” but he confined his searches to our yard. I think I’ll call and ask them what they think the possibilities would be of coming to Oysterville for a wedding-ring-hunt.
Failing that, I think his Christmas gift will be a no-brainer – but only if Holly McCone can do a curbside fitting. Meanwhile… we are on the quest. And, if you happen to find a plain gold band with the well-worn initials NLS-SML-09-13-87 inside it, please give a holler. As far as we know, it has no special powers, but there’s no use risking the fate of Gollum by hanging onto it.
Hi Sydney,
Russ lost his wedding ring several years ago. It must have just slipped off his finger, but we had no idea how long it had been gone. He thought maybe it went in the garbage disposal, but if you have ever heard metal in the garbage disposal you know right away to turn it off. I thought maybe it had gone up the vacuum cleaner. We cleaned out a very full bag (messy job), but no ring. After a lot of searching it did not show up, so for Christmas he got a new (cheap) ring from Overstock. Many months later we had our car detailed. When we picked it up his ring was sitting in the cupholder. When we asked the detailer, he said he found it under the floor mat when he removed it to vacuum. This was at least a year later. Look in the car! 🙂 Jane
Wayne also has lost enough weight so his ring fell off a few weeks ago. After searching high and low I found it in the ice tray in the refrigerator where he’d grabbed a handful of ice for his ice tea.