It was a rainy Monday morning after a great weekend of weather here in Michigan. My boss asked me if I would go get my metal detector during lunch and help find his brother's ring. He said his brother was up from Texas to spend Thanksgiving with the family and lost his gold ring in the lawn. That was last Friday. He said since the days are short, I could leave work early to go searching . . . Metal detecting on authorized company time is okay by me.

So here I was in November, fifty-seven degrees out and raining, trying to find a lost ring. I searched about a half hour in the area where the ring was supposed to be and had no luck. I turned the discrimination down low and ignored all signals that were one inch or deeper. I figured even if the ring had been stepped on it would still be at ground level. I then asked where the brother might have walked while out that day. I was told he most likely walked out to the tool shed but the area was already searched. I thought since it was raining I would check the obvious places first.

After looking about five more minutes, I found it. I think I was just as relieved as my boss, and his mother, as I was pretty well soaked--at least my Whites 6000 did not mind the rain. It worked really well.

The ring was one of the largest gold rings I ever held and it had a few small diamonds on top of it. I figured it must have cost a pretty penny.

I told them I did not want any reward. My boss's mom told me I should go detecting around the factory and could also check any other land they owned.

Next to the company building is a vacant house they own and about a mile away there is an old foundation in one of their fields. I never asked about looking at those sites as I was afraid of being told, "No."

She told me I should go to them and look around. Her husband, the founder of the company where I work, passed away last spring. When he was alive he was an avid farmer and often stopped to talk to me about farming. I figure the land he had and farmed was over a thousand acres in size. Now I guess I better hit the plat books and see how many additional places there are to look.

It was worth it just to see how happy they were. The brother from Texas even called and thanked me. It was an "okay" Monday.

Scott