The Last Place You Look

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Yesterday, I did the first bit of yard work for the spring season.  Actually, if I were to be completely truthful, I did the last bit of yard work from last fall.  I finally raked the leaves in the front yard.  It was not my intention to let the task of raking the leaves wait until March.  I honestly wanted to do it as soon as they finished falling, but with my schedule, the best days for me to do yard work is Sunday's, and it just seemed as if it rained most Sundays during the fall.

So, what prompted me to get out early on a Saturday morning and finally rake the yard.  I would like to say that my motives were simply to get the job done so that the grass could pop through in the next few weeks.  I suppose that in a small way that did play a part in the decision, but I did have other less altruistic motives for raking the yard.

You see, on Friday I received an email from my wife while I was at work.  Somehow, her gold band slipped out of her hand while on the front porch, and she could not find it.  It is just a plain gold band, and it didn't cost a lot to purchase, but with the price of gold these days it would be kind of expensive to replace it.  My primary goal was to find that ring.  Raking the yard was a means to that end.

My brother in law runs a College Hunks Hauling Junk franchise, and he often gets things while on the job.  I texted him on Friday evening as I was heading to my part time job to see if he might have picked up a metal detector along the way.  As luck would have it, he did have one, so after I finished delivering pizza on Friday night, I went by his place to pick it up.

It was dark when I finally got home from work, but I wandered around the front yard with a flashlight and the metal detector to see if I could find anything and perhaps get a glint from the flashlight hitting the gold band.  I really didn't expect to find it in the dark, but I did find a nail and a wire coat hanger.  I decided to try again in the morning.

Early Saturday morning, I headed outside with a rake and the metal detector.  I was running the detector over a pile of leaves and not picking up any readings.  I decided at that point, that I would go ahead and start raking.  As I went back to the place the metal detector on the front porch, sitting there on the porch was the gold band.  I found it in 5 minutes.  Like the old saying goes, when you are looking for something it is always in the last place you look.  Since I was already outside with all of my gardening tools, I went ahead and finished the raking.