What Goes Around Comes Around

Captions: 1. Jim Conzemius riding his bicycle. Jesse Conzemius, our son, took the photo. 2. On left, Tom Hammer, MelonHead; on right, Jim Conzemius, MelonHead. I probably took the photo.

My husband Jim and I have been grabbing with gusto the last few days of good weather for bicycling, and I fear that Friday, October 20th, was the last of those nice days. It was dry, relatively warm, and sunny. Saturday, October 21st, was cloudy. Saturday night it rained, and when we went for a walk at half-time during the Packer-Saints game, it sprinkled and was a little chilly.

On Saturday, October 14th, we rode on the Amy Meyers Cancer Ride in Muscatine to honor Amy Meyers, who died of cancer at age 40. We didn’t know her, but she must have been well liked and even loved by many who knew her, because we’ve been going on the Amy Meyers Ride for years now. Her parents and brother come to the rides.

We all gathered for registration ($10 each) at Mike’s Hilltop Tap. Most of the MelonHeads, our bike team, were there. Dave Bender had a plane to catch for a business meeting in Vegas later that afternoon and doesn’t like biking in the rain, so he melted away after he registered. Tom Hammer, Norm Kasten, Brett, Jim, and I showed up.

The first downhill down Houser Street is dangerous on clear, dry days because it’s so steep and the road is so bad. Even on a sunny, dry day I worry about crashing. Saturday last was not a good day. It was pouring down rain. My glasses were covered with rain, and the only part of me that stayed dry that day was the part of me under my new Gore-tex rain jacket I’d gotten just a few days before. I almost sent it back because the zippers were cheap, but my husband talked me out of it. Good thing.

The downpour was relentless. Jim’s gold ring loosened on his left hand and he almost lost it when he pulled off his bike glove.

I saw his father pull that same ring off his finger and throw it on the floor in a fit of pique at the hospital where he died shortly afterward in Council Bluffs. I alerted my mother-in-law and she picked up the ring. After the funeral, she gave it to Jim, my husband, and he had it resized to fit his finger and has worn it ever since.

Recently Jim lost a few pounds, and with the cold and the rain, the ring came loose. He mentioned it, and I thought about suggesting that he put it away somewhere, but didn't. He left it on his left hand. At some point during the stormy weather, while taking his bike gloves on and off, he lost it.

He didn’t tell me for nearly a week because he knew I’d be upset. I actually didn't get upset because he was clearly upset enough for both of us. On a bike ride Friday, we stopped at the Pullman Diner in Iowa City to get a drink and lunch. As we talked, I noticed he didn’t have a ring on his finger and asked him about it. He was just miserable and assumed the ring was gone forever.

After we rode home, I persuaded him to call all the bars where we’d been in Muscatine on the Amy Ride. It was a long shot. I thought for sure he’d lost it at the first place we’d stopped, which was the American Legion at the bottom of the steep hill on Houser Street.

He called the American Legion. They didn't have it. He called Pete's Tap. No one answered the phone. He called Boonie’s, the last bar and grill we stopped at, and they had it! Appropriately, as I knew they would, they made him describe the ring, which is gold with one diamond in the middle. He described it; they confirmed the description, and Jim said he’d be down to pick it up the next day. He thanked the person who answered the phone.

That was Friday, October 20th. On Saturday, October 21st, we drove down to Boonie’s after Jim got off work and claimed the ring. Not only was it the right ring, but they’d polished it up for him! I hugged the woman who gave it to him, and Jim shook her hand. She seemed very pleased to have made us so happy.

An employee sweeping up after the Amy Ride found the ring on the floor and turned it in to the manager or owner.

We stayed at Boonie’s for supper and ordered food and drinks. We high-fived each other at least twice to celebrate and then enjoyed our dinner.

Thank goodness for honest people. Jim, who is a city bus driver and always turns in lost belongings, once saw a woman’s purse in the middle of the street on a dark morning, and stopped to pick it up. It belonged to a woman passenger who also worked out at the gym we used to go to, and she was very grateful. Everything was still in it, including her cell phone. But someone had run over the purse and the cell phone was broken. She was still thankful to have the rest of her belongings, which included credit cards and other valuables.

What goes around comes around, I guess. We still feel very fortunate.