Keeping Clam

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Yeah, that’s right, yesterday was about “keeping clam”.

More on that later.

I had a lovely morning sleeping in (to the “OMG it’s so late” hour of 7:00 AM) and lounging around in my warm fuzzies drinking my mocha, eating French toast and blogging. I can’t remember the last time I had a relaxing morning, it was nice.

I rearranged my meeting with Marcus for the Rainier to Ruston Relay to later in the afternoon so that I could run errands and make the trip South (was spending the evening in Orting) all in one run. The price of gas is heinous, so I try to combine trips when I can.

I even took a nice long bath and painted my toenails.

When I went out to get in my truck, I saw that the right rear tire was completely flat. That’s never a tire that I’ve had to put air in and I didn’t notice any glass, nails, etc… in it, so I thought it odd.

I was not amused; so I went back in, got into my grubbies and went out to change the tire. I was parked on a hill, so I borrowed a nice big landscape rock to chock the front tire so that the truck wouldn’t roll off of the jack.

I had to call Marcus and cancel our meeting because there was no way I was going to get the tire changed, my errands run and out there for the meeting. We HAVE to have this meeting, so I’ll likely ask him to pick me up at the train station one day next week. He was very sweet, he even offered to help me with the truck if I needed it. (but not in a condescending way) Since changing a tire is not rocket science, I politely declined.

Since my owners manual for the truck was stolen (along with my good lug wrench and my can of compressed air/tire sealant) when my truck was broken into, I had to crawl around a bit to get a look at the mechanism that lowers the spare tire (which thankfully still had plenty of air in it)

As I was crawling round under the truck, I noticed it.

The cap to the valve stem of my other rear tire. It was on the street side, so evidentially, someone drove by and scared whoever was going after that tire away before they could let all the air out of it.

I was pissed.

But I “kept clam”

I looked around and saw that no one else had a flat or a spare on their vehicle, so I can only assume that I was targeted specifically.

I have my (very strong) suspicions.

I also have a plan (which I’m keeping to myself)

I also have access to surveillance equipment and a couple of friends who are police officers.

In any event, I’m more than capable of changing a tire. (of course, it started to rain while I was doing this) I got the two most important errands done after stopping at the gas station to air up all the tires, and still made it out in Orting in time for my “date”

The fun thing about the date, is that it was at a clam feed at the Orting Eagles Lodge. I figured that was a nice, safe, public place to meet an internet date. It was also very low pressure.

After a couple of beers and buckets of really yummy clams (oh yeah, there was salad, garlic bread and spaghetti) we were going to take a walk but it started pouring rain. Since everyone in town seemed to know him and think he was a nice guy, and his adult kids were home, we went back to his place. He’s got a hilarious cockatiel who was very jealous and bit me 4 times. It was pretty funny.

There were some great music programs on PBS, so we had some wine and watched those until I finally left at 11:30 PM. I drug in just after midnight.

I don’t know that anything will or won’t come of it, but I had a very nice evening with a nice person and enjoyed myself. Perhaps dating doesn’t completely suck after all…

And for those who wonder about the “keep clam”

It is a play on words created by the renowned Ivar Haglund who’s seafood restaurants are a local icon. (actually, so is Ivar) An interesting note about “Ivars” is that it was born here in the Seattle area the same year the co-op I work for was created. 1938 was a very good year!



I actually posed with one of the famous dancing clams at my first Seattle Marathon. But I do love this picture. The commercials with the clams running down the beach is hilarious!



and with that, I need to get some food in my and call Morgain so that we can go for a walk. I still need to clean this place up. I didn’t get to it yesterday.

Have a good one and “keep clam” folks….

~L