My Contact Once Was Lost But Now Is Found

Because I had a church committee meeting tonight at 6:30, I left the office at about 4:30, planning to ride roughly an hour and a half before my meeting.  To give myself a little leeway, I figured I could do a route about 25 miles long and go to the meeting on my way home, leaving less than three miles at the end for me to get home.

One of my routes is about 22 miles long and includes Calvin Road, Liberty Church Road, and Bethel Church Road.  I call it Theological Loop.  For several reasons, this seemed to be the perfect route for today.

I headed out on this beautiful afternoon.  About seven miles into my ride, I turned onto Calvin Road to begin the ecclesiastical part of the route.  A speck of dirt or something had gotten into my eye.  Usually, I can let my eye water or gently rub my eye, and the discomfort goes away.  That wasn't happening this time.  The pain was getting more and more distracting.  Finally, I decided to pull over and rinse my contact with water from my bottle.  Surely this would do the trick.

I purposely stopped on a shoulder with short grass.  I would be as careful as possible, but if I dropped my contact - heaven forbid - short grass would be easier to search than tall grass.

Heaven didn't forbid.

Yep, I dropped my contact.  I froze, trying to pinpoint in my mind the exact spot where I was standing when I lost my contact.  Carefully, carefully, I set my bicycle to the side, got on my hands and knees, and started searching.  I selected an area about four feet by four feet to cover inch by inch.  My face was right next to the ground.

A car stopped.  Was I hurt?  Was I kissing the ground?  I thanked the woman for her concern, and she sympathized when I told her what I was doing.  I said I was going to be patient...

After about five minutes, I hadn't found it.  I could get a new contact.  After all, when I had my annual eye exam a few months ago, I was borderline needing a little more power on that eye anyway.  Then I thought about how I really don't need that extra expense right now, which inspired me to do one more check.

I zeroed in on what I thought was the exact spot I had been standing when I dropped my contact.  Once more search...there it was!

My contact once was lost but now is found.  I rinsed it well, put it back in, and was as good as new!

Because I was on Calvin Road, maybe I was predestined to find my contact.  In gratitude, and because by then I didn't have time to complete the entire Theological Loop, I just went out and back on Calvin Road.  

The speck that was in my eye sure did feel like a log.  Now that I've removed it, I can see clearly to remove the speck from your eye :o