Yesterday afternoon we started having a full on blizzard. It was so bad that my boss came out at 4:00 and said we could all go home before things get any worse. I was super happy that I was getting to go home an hour early and started planning what I was going to do with the extra time.
I went out to my car in the far out parking lot and all bundled up proceeded to remove the several inches of snow already on it. I get in my car and start it up ready to go and see that my gloves are totally covered in snow. I decide to take them off and lay them on the floor in the passenger seat to dry while I drive home. I then reach out for the door handle to close the car door and in an instant my wedding ring slips from my finger and plummets into the snow below.
I honestly thought, "No big deal I saw it fall, it's right here." I scoop into where I thought I saw it fall... it's not there. I scoop again, still nothing. I put my gloves back on and get out to take a better look at the area. Several passes and I still don't see the ring. This is where I start to panic.
Now I'm on my hands and knees in the snow carefully shifting around the snow pile knowing it just has to be here
somewhere. I am all systematic about it using the scraper end of my car scraper to portion off an area and look through it. Searching for many minutes and not finding anything I do the only thing I can do; completely go hysterical.
I call up Dodge and let him know what happened. He makes a plan to drive all the way to Lansing from Ann Arbor (in a blizzard!) to help me. He suggests going to the security guard in my building in case they have something to help me.
I walk up to the security desk looking a positive mess. By this time I've spent a good 25 minutes digging in snow and 5 minutes crying so my hair is so full of snow I look like a yeti from the wild and my make-up has run all over my face. Anyway the security guard doesn't help a lick. I finally ask if there's any salt I can use thinking if I melt away the snow, all that will be left is my ring! She points me to a big garbage can of salt and says I'm free to use it.
There's a nasty rusty old coffee can in the garbage bin and I fill it up and take it to the spot. In all this time it's still snowing like crazy and my little area is starting to fill in. I figure it wasn't a big deal, shortly all the snow would be gone. I sprinkle it around and sit in my car to wait for the salt to do it's magic. I take the time to call mom and see what she has to say. Her suggestion is to try hot water and melt the snow that way. She also offers to come help but it seriously is horrible outside and I wasn't thrilled about Dodge driving all that way already. Dodge calls me back saying he called the Wal-Mart near my office and they had a metal detector. He was going to pick up the metal detector and come help me.
I come out to look at my excavation area and the salt seemed to do well. Snow was definitely receding so I dig around a little more. Still nothing. I pick up the coffee can and head all the way back to the building for a try at mom's hot water idea. I return and see the salt area already coated with fresh snow. I slowly pour out the water like mom instructed me to because we didn't want the ring to wash away somewhere. It worked great. Immediately all the snow disappeared showing the pavement below. Only problem is, still no ring. So I return to get more hot water, but before leaving set up my umbrella over the area trying to prevent some of the accumulating snow falling on the area.
On my second trip up to get some water I call Alan thinking, if anybody has a metal detector lying around, he would be the guy. No luck with that and I lost his call as I walked into the building. It's after 5 by now so I have to use my after hours access to get inside. I think to myself how sad it was that of all the people in this building, only one woman stopped to ask if the girl sobbing in the parking lot needed assistance.
I return and try a larger area with the water. Still no luck. At this point, I don't think I could truly express my despair. I thought my ring was lost forever. I was completely soaked from my digging in the snow and frozen to the bone. As I later explained to Alan, I seriously thought "I am so cold, I'm going to die". On top of this there was a blizzard dumping huge amounts of snow the longer I hung around and I live 50 miles away from work.
Dodge calls again and I tell him through my tears how distraught I was. He tells me just to sit in the car and stay warm. He's coming though it will probably take several hours and we can find the ring with the metal detector. I honestly didn't know what else to possibly do. Nothing I've done has returned any results other than to get me colder and wetter.
I get back in my car ready to just sit and wait and hope I had enough gas to keep me warm until Dodge could arrive. Just on a complete whim, I open the car door again and happened to look in the right direction at the proper angle and through a tiny tiny hole in the snow I see the tip of my ring peeking out. I reached out and grabbed it and not 2 seconds after my ring was back on my finger Mom called wanting a status and asking if Grandpa should come out and help me. I tell her the good news and then call Dodge to stop him from his journey to Lansing.
In my great excitement I forgot to put the rusty coffee can where I found it but oh well. I was so overjoyed that I found it. And it only took an hour and a half... :P
