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Old 01-20-2022, 02:52 PM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is offline
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Default The ring has a will of its own...

"...the ring of power has a will of its own." Galadriel, from the intro to The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, 2001.



And then there is my wedding ring. I have worn it for forty-two years but it was re-made by a goldsmith from a previous existence as the token of another marriage. It appears to have a life apart from me. In its time with me it has gone on walkabout at least five times and sometimes hasn't returned for rather long periods. Much of this is due to my weight loss that has rendered my finger quite a bit smaller.

The first trip I can remember happened in 2003 and lasted only minutes. I was walking across a dune footbridge to my son's wedding rehearsal on the beach when the ring slipped from my hand, fell to a wooden floor board, and slipped through a crack to bury itself in the sand below. The bridge's supports blocked my access to the sand below, but I could see the circular imprint where the ring had entered the sand. A few minutes later a young boy came along and I enlisted his aid to retrieve it. Wheew.

Another day it simply slipped off my hand and made its way into the grass of our front yard. I spent a half hour on my knees searching until its glint caught my eye where it hid under a tussock.

The longest excursion was in 2010, when it fell from my finger as I worked on a piece of gear in the control room at the studio and rolled across the floor. This time it was serious about getting away. I frantically search for it for days and it didn't show. A month and a half later I was installing new gear in an equipment rack in the control room and lifted an access hatch to a cable raceway to run a cable. Now, I had checked this space before, but this time as I ran the cable it peeked out from under a thatch of other cables. It was restored to me just days before my wife and I celebrated our thirtieth anniversary.

Winter days are rough, because my fingers shrink. One winter day I came home and shed my coat, hat, gloves, and scarf and looked down at my hand... The ring was gone. I retraced my steps for the previous hours, but the ring was nowhere to be found. The next morning when I put on my gloves it clunked against my finger, having been trapped in the finger of its respective glove and stripped off by the glove as it was removed the day before.

Which brings us to the present. Two weeks ago on another cold, snowy day, I was loading up the car to travel. It was a typical first day of the trip with delays adding up before we even got out of the driveway. As I packed the trunk of the car, I pulled off my glove to make a fine adjustment. The ring ran for it and dived into a gap between two pieces of trim in the trunk. When I fished for it, it took another quick dive around a bend in the crevice to vanish from sight. I grabbed some tools and attempted a quick extraction but for nought. We simply had to get going, so I abandoned the attempt and we left on our eventful journey of over 1000 miles. When we got back, I kept looking for a good day to attempt to a rescue but the weather was abysmal.

Finally yesterday, we experienced a short blast of balmy, 57'F temperatures and I dove in to the task. I attempted to remove the trunk liner, but its bolts wouldn't yield to a ratchet wrench or impact driver. What to do? Don't raise the bridge, lower the water! I went fishing again with a flashlight. Suddenly, way down in the crack between the two pieces of trim, a tiny glint of gold appeared just at the bend in the crevice. I got a metal coat hangar and fashioned from a portion a retrieval tool that could possibly just reach the ring and then hopefully exert pressure to raise it up from just out of sight to the bend in the crevice. There, with another tool crafted from the rest of the coat hanger, I might just be able to snag it.

I have no idea how the universe knows how to make things as hard as possible for adventurers like me, but it does. Let's just say that it took far longer and required far more patience than one would think necessary, but the ring and my finger are once again united.

We've got to get this ring re-sized, if only to reduce its forays into the world.

Bob
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Last edited by Bob Womack; 01-21-2022 at 09:20 AM. Reason: ooops. Speeling. Thanks dirkronk!
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Old 01-20-2022, 03:40 PM
random works random works is offline
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That sir, is amazing!
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Old 01-20-2022, 06:55 PM
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One of your finest, Bob!

I just went through the challenge of resizing a ring that had not been off my finger for 30+ years. Implements were used, whose existence I’d never before imagined. Malnourished bachelor -> happily married can do that to one’s physique

Now, there’s no way it will fall off, but I can, at least, remove it when I think to.
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Old 01-21-2022, 09:16 AM
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Meany moons ago I was truck driver and while exiting the cab in a two house town in Nebraska the door handle slid between my ring and finger. I found myself hanging off the truck by my finger. That was when I quit wearing any type of jewelry.
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Old 01-21-2022, 10:36 AM
steelvibe steelvibe is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly View Post
Meany moons ago I was truck driver and while exiting the cab in a two house town in Nebraska the door handle slid between my ring and finger. I found myself hanging off the truck by my finger. That was when I quit wearing any type of jewelry.
They make rings now that look great, manly, that will give under a certain amount of pressure- silicone rings like the ones made from Groove Life. Many also just tattoo a ring but then the problem is divorce.
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Old 01-21-2022, 10:49 AM
rmp rmp is offline
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wow,, I hope you get it back bob.

I have a wedding ring story...

hope you doing mind if I share here.

We had already been married for only a few years (maybe 5 or so)

I was out on a crisp fall afternoon in the yard of the duplex we rented playing catch with the kid, and the pup we had.

I tossed a handful of leaves at Kira, (the pup) who excitedly dove after them,

I did it again, and one last time, and on that third toss, my wedding ring left my finger and went flying into the abys. I heard it land on the leaves, and the search began.

for 5 days, I scoured that area of the yard looking for it.. My wife said "look we can go get another ring, it's not a big deal,, this is nuts you're driving yourself mad"


I knew she was probably right...

I brushed at a pile of leaves down at my feet, one last attempt..

and there was my ring.

I looked at Deb, with what had to be this astonished look on my face, I bent down, retrieved the ring and showed it to her.

She began to cry, and I think I did too. I was too stunned to remember exactly.

it was a long time ago, but I remember that afternoon like it just happened.

You'll get your ring, one way or another,
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Last edited by rmp; 01-21-2022 at 11:13 AM.
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Old 01-21-2022, 10:51 AM
Tnfiddler Tnfiddler is offline
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Big fan of my Tungsten wedding band. This is my 2nd one. The first one come off my finger while I was wake surfing in about 100 feet of water, so no finding it!LOL.

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Old 01-21-2022, 12:53 PM
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I had the same problem with my wedding ring. I had two small cleats placed on the inside of the ring that kept my ring in place.
The cleats can be adjusted or removed easily enough if needed.

Best,
Tom
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Old 01-22-2022, 08:47 AM
Golffishny Golffishny is offline
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3 years ago I lost 30 pounds before a hip replacement surgery. My ring fell off 3 times in 2 days. The last one was on the golf course. I was lucky enough to find it. I decided it was safer in a drawer.
My wife had the opposite problem. After too many years of medications she put on a few pounds. Her ring was cutting off circulation and she had to have it cut off.
We're now considering resizing or getting new rings for out 30th anniversary. The carved wooden rings are appealing to us. Does any one here have any experience with them, fit, cleaning? Thanks. Have a good day.
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Old 01-22-2022, 10:04 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly View Post
Meany moons ago I was truck driver and while exiting the cab in a two house town in Nebraska the door handle slid between my ring and finger. I found myself hanging off the truck by my finger. That was when I quit wearing any type of jewelry.
Having been in carpentry (home construction) for much of my adult life I too have hung from my ring (while slipping down between trusses got caught on the edge of a plate gang nail ) . And in fact it is common thinking in that line of work to not wear any jewelry rings included . But when I got married at age 31 I made a commitment to my self, to not take it off except emergency or rare occasion and also not change wives . I have done so on both counts BUT the ring does reflect that commitment (This being one of those rare occasion )

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Last edited by KevWind; 01-22-2022 at 10:20 AM.
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Old 01-22-2022, 11:19 AM
Tnfiddler Tnfiddler is offline
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Originally Posted by KevWind View Post
Having been in carpentry (home construction) for much of my adult life I too have hung from my ring (while slipping down between trusses got caught on the edge of a plate gang nail ) . And in fact it is common thinking in that line of work to not wear any jewelry rings included . But when I got married at age 31 I made a commitment to my self, to not take it off except emergency or rare occasion and also not change wives . I have done so on both counts BUT the ring does reflect that commitment (This being one of those rare occasion )


That’s the scary part of Tungsten metal. If you get it caught/wedged on something and you can’t get your finger out of it, it’ll probably be the finger that comes off to remove your hand, because it’s such a high-strength metal. I also like to never take off my wedding band, but if I’m working in a tight spot, I’ll remove it temporarily, so my ring finger isn’t removed permanently. LOL I don’t like to take it off, though.
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Old 01-22-2022, 12:00 PM
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Is this the plot line of the new Amazon Prime series... ?
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Old 01-22-2022, 12:37 PM
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Originally Posted by Tnfiddler View Post
That’s the scary part of Tungsten metal. If you get it caught/wedged on something and you can’t get your finger out of it, it’ll probably be the finger that comes off to remove your hand, because it’s such a high-strength metal. I also like to never take off my wedding band, but if I’m working in a tight spot, I’ll remove it temporarily, so my ring finger isn’t removed permanently. LOL I don’t like to take it off, though.
Obviously by the shape of mine its fairly malleable (White Gold)
And luckily when I did get hung by it only took an instant for me to grab the bottom cord of the truss with my other hand and unhook myself.

The bad hang job was when while standing on a sawhorse (dumb) on uneven ground (dumb) and putting in 2X4 bracing for the soffit on the eves on a house exterior

I reached to far to the side (also dumb and lazy) and just as I was shooting in the brace with a 16 penny nailer -- holding the brace with my left hand and triggering the nail gun with my right (risky at best ) --

So picture I am reaching up about at my full reach. The saw horse slipped and I shot the nail right through skin on the top of my left pointer finger and what amazed me was it did not rip right through but instead I was hanging by the skin on my finger (I am guessing because there was no drop being at full reach anyway)
Again luckily my buddy was only about 15 ft away (cutting the bracing) So he ran up grabbed my legs and put the sawhorse underneath me WHEW .
It was a case of dumb, dumb, dumb, risky, lazy, lucky-----
But then it was a bit tricky to use a the claws on my hammer to pry the nail out without crushing my finger
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Last edited by KevWind; 01-22-2022 at 12:53 PM.
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Old 01-22-2022, 12:42 PM
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Is this the plot line of the new Amazon Prime series... ?
Good idea two parallel plot lines
"The Ring has a Will of its Own" and "The Hanging Ring"
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Old 01-22-2022, 12:53 PM
Tnfiddler Tnfiddler is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KevWind View Post
Obviously by the shape of mine its fairly malleable (White Gold)
And luckily when I did get hung by it only took an instant for me to grab the bottom cord of the truss with my other hand and unhook myself.

The bad hang job was when while standing on a sawhorse (dumb) on uneven ground (dumb) and putting in 2X4 bracing for the soffit on the eves on a house exterior

I reached to far to the side (also dumb and lazy) and just as I was shooting in the brace with a 16 penny nailer -- holding the brace with my left hand and triggering the nail gun with my right (risky at best ) --

So picture I am reaching up about at my full reach. The saw horse slipped and I shot the nail right through skin on the top of my left pointer finger and what amazed me was it did not rip right through but instead I was hanging by the skin on my finger (I am guessing because there was no drop being at full reach anyway)
Again luckily my buddy was only about 15 ft away (cutting the bracing) So he ran up grabbed my legs and put the sawhorse underneath me WHEW It was a case of dumb, dumb, dumb, risky, lazy, lucky-----
But then it was a bit tricky to use a the claws on my hammer to pry the nail out without crushing my finger

I was picturing this in my mind as I read it, but when I got to the nail gun incident, that’s one I wish I could Unsee! Glad it turned out ok!
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