Rusharound

Try and imagine this.

All three Hambletons were in the car, returning from a our friends’ terrific wedding in Burlington, Vermont.  (Yay Kim and Mike!) While cruising along I-89, I noticed something funny in the mirror – a pickup truck we’d just passed looked like it was dragging something behind it … at 65MPH. I slowed our car down to let it pass and confirmed it: part of the ride-on mower in the truck’s bed had fallen out and was sashaying along the ground behind it, tethered by a single piece of webbing.  Very dangerous – and the driver was oblivious.  I donned my imaginary superhero cape and sped up so I could make eye contact with the driver.  When our windows were aligned, I rolled mine down and started waving profusely.

And my wedding ring flew off.

At 75MPH.

In the rain.

It bounced once before disappearing someplace into the highway’s unmowed, grassy median.

I said a four letter word, hit the brakes, and against my wife’s advice, parked the car on the right shoulder and started looking for my ring.  (Well, first there was the small issue of crossing I-89’s two lanes of traffic wearing ankle-twisting-clogs, but I don’t want to dwell on the near-deathy-part of the story.)

Anyway, I searched the median for a couple of minutes, occasionally looking up and realizing that my family was sitting in a car on the side of the highway and I’m only feet away from blurring-fast-cars.  As I put my head down one last time to find something shiny in the gravel and grassy median, it occurred to me that searching this way for a store-bought momento — one that represents the long life we are to have together — was really stupid.

I called off the search – no ring.

So if you happen to notice the pale, empty part of my ring finger, please don’t start any rumors.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 27th, 2009 at 5:30 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.