After Saturday nights set of The Keels and Rumpke Mountain Boys at Sleepy Creek Acoustic Harfest I was ready to get my fill of playing washtub bass at the campfires for the rest of the night. The music shifted spots a few times as the various bonfires roasted our faces. Golf cart rides were taken, given, hijacked even! All in good fun though and no ones feelings were hurt…Smiles all around(~};) But at some point I must have been slapping too aggressively on my bass or driving to recklessly (sorry bout your hand and that tree Tone) to the point where my wedding ring came right off my finger without me even noticing. It wasn’t until I was home chillin in bed feeling good when I noticed. That’s when the nerves set in,.. how was I going to explain this to my ultra stunningly beautiful wife? Luckily I did not have to suffer very long. As soon as I opened Facebook there was a picture of my ring on someone’s finger with the comment “anyone lose a ring?”. Not just any ring… my wedding ring! Gibeon meteorite, 4 billion years old, set in titanium. Definitely not cheap and an easy hock at a pawn shop if someone wanted.
“Anybody lose a ring over the weekend?”
Really a stone that old must have already figured its path out long ago. It found me and wouldn’t let my dumbass lose it… at least not the first time around. After contacting Jimmy we decided it would be best to meet in person rather than use the post office to complete our adventure. It just happened that the DC Mystery Cats were playing Gypsy Sally’s the next night. You don’t have to give me many reasons to see a John K show so it was a no brainer to cancel all my plans and head to our nations capitol. Well my wise old meteorite ring must have better directions to find me than my GPS was giving me to find it. As I tried to find Gypsy Sally’s, only being there twice before, and riding with friends then, it led me to drive around the block 3 times before I finally made the exit to take me under the bridges. Once I was down there I saw Jimmy outside the venue waiting with a huge grin on his face. I stopped right in the road, hopped out and gave him a bear hug!
Now on my way down to DC I figured I would just grab my ring say thank you and head home. The show was sold out as it had been each week previous. To my surprise, Jimmy had an extra ticket for me, a little icing on the cake so to speak. I couldn’t stay long but was there for about half the show hearing songs like “Cats Down Under The Stars”, “When I Paint My Masterpiece”, and a seriously funky “Tangled Up In Blue”
So as I am writing my finishing thoughts on my rings magical journey I am reminded of how wonderful of world we actually live in. For today I am bringing a lost racing pigeon back to its owners. The other day as my daughter and wife were picking out a pumpkin at our local orchard they notice a disoriented pigeon and after asking the owners of the farm if it was theirs finding no 1 to claim it they brought it home. (I am reminded of a Simpsons episode where Lisa is holding Smithers up from getting to Burns’s cabin by finding all the cute little wounded animals like shrews and birds.) The little guy or gal still not sure which, had a gold band around its leg with the letters AU, and 2014 with an identification number on it. After a quick google search I was able to read what it meant and quickly find the owners. In a thick European accent the couple told me they let their bird out 3 days ago and it flew the wrong direction and got lost. They also told me one of their birds had ended up in Cleveland Ohio just a while back but after a couple days of rest, food and water it was able to make the long journey home. Seeing as we were so close they just asked to meet me halfway. Gladly said yes chuckling to myself and thinking about Jimmy’s adventure with my wedding ring. What a small and simple world we live in. Love and caring are all around us everyday, all you have to do is open your eyes…oh and paying it forward helps a little too.
Check out The DC Mystery Cats at Gypsy Sally’s tonight at 8 and say hello!
