Every commercial on TV is screaming, “Buy me!  Buy me!”  Half of these are the ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ commercials.  Handsome men present necklaces that are dripping in glittering stones to attractive wives or girlfriends whose eyes light up with love.  They flash these gorgeous nothing-less-than-a-carat diamond rings with breathtaking settings onto the TV screen and tell you, if you love her, you’ll buy her one.

     A few years ago, my friend almost lost her diamond because the prongs holding it in the setting had worn down to nothing.  Her diamond popped out and, lucky for her, it landed on her keyboard. 

     Which brings me to the conversation Dear Hubby and I got into about my engagement ring.  After watching a trillion of those commercials, I’d taken my ring off to check the setting.  We’d had the prongs checked right after my friend’s ring incident but I hadn’t really looked at them in while.  The prongs were fine but wow the band sure is thinning.  You see I’ve worn it for thirty-five years.

     I said, “Hey Hon, look at this.”  I showed him the ring. 

     He examined the ring and said, “Yes, you are wearing a bit thin after all these years.”

     “You’d best smile when you say that, boy.  I write murder mysteries.”

     Lucky for him he was grinning.