Or, at least I was last weekend. But the guilt lingers...
We were thrilled to discover we had the same days off this weekend, and decided to go tubing again, thi
s time much earlier to give us the chance to really relax this time.Ha!
All started out fine. We were floating down the river for about an hour. The sun was hot, but the water was nice and cool. More beautiful birds were spotted, this time including the impressive-looking osprey, as well as more screeching giant blue herons and a bevy of other feathered folk. We only saw one other group of people the whole time we were floating. Nice.
At one point the river slowed a bit and I was sitting right atop the tube enjoying myself. My wedding ring, which is a very thick Scottish wedding band of knotted silver with a thistle on opposite "sides" was itching and irritating me a bit. That happens once in awhile, I guess because it's such a big ring, and normally I just pull it off, rub my finger a few times, and push it back on.
You can probably already guess where this is going. Not really giving it much thought, I pulled the ring off, rubbed my finger a few times, and started to slide i
t back on again. Just as the ring touched my finger, *whooosh* it dropped like a lightning bolt straight into the water.I wish I could convey to you the complex terror of that moment. It's amazing the 10,000 things that can fire through your brain in less than one full second. Shock that it's actually happened. Horror that your wedding ring is now at the bottom of a river, a not-so-likely place to ever be retrieved from. Despair as your tube is already floating away from the dropped location. Anger that you were so stupid. Guilt that you were so reckless. Fear that that's just it, it's gone. And an indescribable emotion, a kind of GO GO GO NOW adrenaline of action that kicks in. I immediately (though it felt like minutes had gone by), dropped through the middle of my tube into the water, only to immediately discover that at that point in the river, the water was all the way up to my forehead - just my incredible bad luck since the majority of the river ranges from about 3 inches to 4 1/2 feet in depth. (I am 5'8).
After screaming at Beau, who was behind me aways on his own tube, and immediately knew something was very wrong, I began a desperate attempt to make my way back to where I thought I had dropped it. This was incredibly difficult since a) the water was so high at this point and b) the current was fairly strong. I was literally on my tippy-toes, digging them into the stony bottom, trying to work my way back up the river. And of course, I was bawling my fucking head off since I knew it was most likely already a lost cause.
Beau caught up, and we began the search. One small piece of luck is that the river is incredibly clear, but the depth darkened the water somewhat, and with the current constantly push push pushing you on, it was this horrible game we were playing. I stood there, anxiously trying to stay in one place, holding a tube in each hand while Beau scanned the bottom as best he could. This went on for about 10 minutes, until he suddenly shouted, "I see it!" I felt like my heart burst out of my chest and flew skyward. I couldn't believe the GOOD luck! He dived, but came up pretty quickly. With the current pushing you by, as soon as you see it, you're past it. But now, there was hope!
We tried to mark the location as best we could and regroup. I also began to try and search the bottom, though knowing the ring was resting on a place too deep for me to stand made things especially rough. We kept it up though, and Beau thought he spotted it again, dived again, but came up empty-handed. It was maddening. I then devised a method, where I would walk upstream to where I could actually get solid footing, mount my tube, and then float toward the believed-resting place of the ring, my face practically in the water as I went by, eyes darting back and forth wildly. Beau would call out, "You should be passing it about now" and my heart would just clench as I scanned for flashing silver. The first couple times, nothing, but around the third time, I actually spotted it too! I could hardly believe it - but there it was, the large, super-bright silver circle shining in the water like the god-damn Lord of the Rings ring. I dived, but couldn't see a thing, and was immediately pushed past it. I desperately grabbed with both hands, and surfacing, opened my fingers with some anticipation, only to see rocks and dirt spill out between them.
Roller coaster highs and lows, over and over again. Hope, then despair. It was awful. Beau continued to scan and I continued my float-by technique. We would both each spot it again, but with no luck. It was more totally exasperating to know it was there, so close, and not be able to snatch it, than it would be to just simply never seen it at all and thought it gone forever.
After a time, the light began to fade, and Beau urged me to give up the search. I kept asking for "one more pass" and made a few more "final" ones. No luck. Finally, I had to face the fact that we had to go, and we mounted our tubes and began to float again. I felt so low, and guilty. What a fucking stupid thing to do! It was just one of those things you do out of habit, with hardly a thought, but of course, you don't do that while on a RIVER! I felt like an idiot and a bad wife. And just like the previous time, the darkness began to catch up with us, and we considered exiting the river again for another railroad tracks walk, but we stuck it out, and if I hadn't been so completely miserable over my ring, would have found t
he rest of the float quite enjoyable. We saw more herons, and at one point, a young buck was in the water just across the river from us. He stared at us as we silently floated by, staring back at him. And despite all, I had to giggle when Beau said, "He's got a nice little rack on him." It was a lovely (and naughty) moment, but unfortunately marred.And after what seemed like forever (I just wanted OUT of the river), we made it to the bridge and crawled our way up some rocks and to our car. This entire time Beau was nothing but kind and understanding. Not once had he gotten angry with me, and kept saying, "It was just an accident." I have to hand it to him - I think I would have been emotional if he'd dropped his wedding ring into the river. Accidents are accidents, yes, but that doesn't mean they can't be upsetting. Or stupid.
The next morning I got up and went to Target, where I purchased a simple, sterling silver wedding band. It's a nice, temporary ring, though when I could (should) get a new one is beyond me at this moment. And of course, it's not MY ring, my special ring. I really would like to go back to the river to try again, this time equipped with a face mask and, I dunno, a net or something, especially since we had the drop site well-marked. Also, the repeated 100+ degree temperatures we've had will have lowered the water level somewhat by next weekend, but I know it's probably even more unlikely we could spot it this time than last time. Still, I have hope.
8 comments:
Well, unless a fish eats it, the ring probably won't move very far from where it is now, and if there isn't a heavy rain or something it probably won't get covered with silt.
Although it was lost in a chair, not in a river, we found my wedding ring years after I lost it, and it survived repeated vacuum attempts and a multi-state move!
I am a firm believer in Murphy's Law.
I am this way because of experience. Now, where is that damm job. I know it was here somewhere. ;)
I sincerely hope you're not a terrible person... 'cause if you were, that ring might contain the essence of your terribleness. Then, one day, a couple of small river-dwelling folk might accidentally stumble across it, one would kill the other over it, and then - after having been driven out of his community for his crime - take to referring to it as "my precioussss"... and then where would we be?
Also, Beau's reaction shows how ab fab he is *applies sponge of approval* :)
(Could one of you have stood there and anchored the other during the dive? I wasn't entirely sure how deep it was.)
Well, it's certainly a SHINY ring...I don't remember any elven words scratched into it though...poor little Hobbits.
As for holding on, that wouldn't have worked since one of us had to hold onto the two ginormous inner tubes while the other was scanning/diving. It wasn't an ideal situation. Beau keeps laughing at my various schemes for going back and "anchoring" the tubes so we dont' have to be worried about them. ("J., you know the bottom is only rocks, and not that deep? How will you stick a stick in there?").
I still am holding out for returning this weekend with a butterfly net and face mask....
Moron! Okay, now that I've said that, you need to ask everyone you know, at the Univ. and at ShopKo, and wherever, for a scuba diver. Network, network, network. Have your new best friend (the diver) find your ring, and retrieve it. You may have to give away your firstborn child, but what the hey, you can always have more kids.
So sorry to hear about your bad luck. I hope you'll be able to forgive yourself soon because stupid things like that do happen to good people. Best of luck for your next attempt at retrieving the ring.
I'm just like Harry Potter! I'm a good person to whom very bad things have happened!
Well, sorta.
Two years ago, I was on the long flight over the Atlantic to the States, alone with a very young Catie. Well, on the flight, my fingers swelled a bit, so I, like you, took my wedding ring off to rub my finger (and make sure it would still come off and not cut off circulation). I dropped it, of course. I tried reaching down to get it, but with a kid, and various kid things and the tight conditions, I decided to wait until the flight ended and then search for it. I'd already asked the people in front and behind me if they just happened to see it on the floor, but they didn't. Well, the flight ended, and most of the passengers had gone off the plane. I was on my hands and knees searching, but couldn't find it. I started bawling. I was so upset, that 5 stewardesses/stewards come to where I was and started searching along with me. They ripped apart the seats and everything. I was terrified that it had bounced into the air vent there along the floor. But, mine was eventually found under the carpet of the seat behind mine. Yay! and yay for the help and the ripping apart of airline property and all of that. I mean, mine is a very simple ring, but it's mine, put on my hand by Robert, and it is inscribed and and and I would have been crushed (and was for a good 20 minutes when I thought it was lost) had it gone missing. I hope you are able to find yours when you go back next!
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