Nov 27 2008
My Wife’s Engagement Ring and Rat Poison
There years ago I had the local jeweler add six diamonds to the band of my wife’s wedding ring, five for our children and one for our dog.
The reason we had one for the dog was that we had to have an even number of diamonds.
The dog died from rat poisoning.
Rodent Poison
Do you know those cute little yellow boxes that you poke a hole in, the mice eat the grain and poison and you are free of mice?
Watch out!
The label warned about pets. They were right. It kills them. The pets die a miserably slow death.
We put those cute little mouse-killing boxes where the dog could never get to them. That’s what we thought.
Either the dog somehow got his paw far enough under the bottom shelf of my work bench to pull a box out, or the mice moved it for him.
Either way, my son, who is a veterinarian and two other veterinarians, could not save him.
Don’t buy that stuff!
My son treats animals all the time that get in to rat poisoning. Sadly, one of his clients lost two thoroughbred horses when they reached the bait while riding in the horse trailer.
The Ring
Be that as it may, my wife’s ring popped open like a horseshoe. Stress on the band probably left by improper annealing allowed it to pop open. The jeweler who placed the diamonds was required by the store owner to do the job over again because he made a mess of things the first time. Let’s blame him!
We went to the mall in Twin Falls to do our Christmas shopping. That was the day before Thanksgiving, the best day to shop for Christmas without being trampled to death. (See my article on the subject).
There, we studied the zillion jewelry stores.
I knew that Miller’s Jewelry had a good technician, so we went there.
We were told we could have the ring in one hour.
After shopping we sat in front of the Jewelry store and waited for the clerk to beckon when the ring was repaired.
I ate one of those pretzels with all the sugar and cinnamon in the world on it. I think the pile of fallen sugar and cinnamon left at my feet was about a foot high.
We were told the repair would take one hour.
After only forty-five minutes out came the technician with the ring.
He said, “They really look good when they are cleaned up, don’t they.”
Wow! He was right. The ring was dazzling. He had popped it into his ultrasonic cleaner.
The repair was perfect.
My wife was thrilled.
The technician was as proud as a new papa.
By doing a great job, he made us all happy.
To tell you the truth, I had my apprehensions. I knew if he did not do things right that my wife would be very unhappy.
Here is Jones Rule 1017: If your wife is unhappy, you are very unhappy indeed!
I figured what I would say to the technician if the job was not done right: “Now I’ll have to shoot you!”
I figured the odds of my wife being happy after the repair were a zillion to one.
Then out comes that technical genius with the ring shining and in perfect condition.
I wish my wife would stop kissing strange men!
Copyright©John T. Jones, Ph.D. 2005
John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com)is a retired R&D engineer and VP of a Fortune 500 company. He is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering), poetry, etc. Former editor of international trade magazine. Jones is Executive Representative of International Wealth Success.
More info: http://www.tjbooks.com
Business web site: http://www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS wealth-success books and kits and business newsletters / TopFlight flagpoles)
Tags: dogs, engagement ring, horses, jewelry, jewelry repair, rat poison, wedding ring