Midwest2Westcoast

  Way back in 2018, when we were shopping for a car, we tried several models, but the only one that Ann found interesting was the Beetle. The one available in Columbia was orange, and the dealer wouldn’t budge off of MSRP. I did a nationwide search and came up with one in the state of Washington. It was used, but had only 600 miles on it. The salesman said all that he knew was the original buyer traded it in on a new Ford Explorer. That leads me to believe either: A. He had encountered some deep snow; or B. He attempted to transport someone in the rear seat who had some say over what car he owned. This Washington dealer was more accustomed to selling Explorers than Beetles, it was the middle of winter and he wanted this one gone. Asking price was by far the cheapest in the nation, even after paying $1,000 to have it shipped to COMO. The semi-truck car hauler stopped in the middle of Providence Road to unload it – wisely opting not to enter my neighborhood with its lovely tree-lined...

I can’t take credit for the clever headline. It was the actual name of the event.  Last night Ann and I went to 7 Seas Brewery in Gig Harbor. You can almost see it from our deck, or maybe you can see it if you know where to look. But it was about a 20-minute drive, because it's across the channel from where we are. We may need to acquire a boat.  An organization called Harbor WildWatch was set up just behind the brewery, in front of the Harbor of Gig, which is filled with many fine seaworthy vessels, and not any junkers. But we weren’t there to look at boats. Our focus was under the sea.  They had two divers go into the water with video cameras, projecting what they saw on a small movie screen for us all to see. They found a lot of very colorful starfish, which would have been impressive before I learned that the beach right outside of my house is littered with them every night. They also found several crabs, and it was nice to have someone explain the different species....

  You’ve seen Ann and Mary on the beach, so I thought I’d do a photo dump to give you a better look at what the clams look like. The picture of the sand is what you are looking for (in optimum conditions). The clam sign is called a shows. When things are going well, it looks like a small donut. When things are going less well, it is just a small hole, sometimes as small as a dime. When things are going even worse, it’s a vague depression in the sand about the size of a dime. The dug clams (above) look about what you think they would look like. The rest of the pics are the clams after they cleaned, and then finally two delicious dinners, and lots of clams in the freezer. 

  We did a weekend trip to Long Beach. No, not the one in California with all the sunshine, beautiful people and fancy restaurants. The one in Washington with the clams. It’s further away than Twin Harbors or Copalis by a little more than 40 minutes, but we were itching to do some more exploring and it’s a beautiful drive down Highway 101, so the extra 40 minutes didn’t bother us much. We’re too new to clamming to know what’s a good day and what isn’t, but we certainly enjoyed the weather, which happened to be just as sunny as California. And we did get clams. I got one that was all about the party, so I named him Clammy Hagar. Another was more into jazz and show tunes, so I called him Clammy Davis Jr. We got close to our limit of 15 each again, with both of us just a couple shy. I was concerned Ann would have us going back out at midnight, but she told me the day on the daily limit resets at noon, and by then we were back in Tacoma. Ann now has a master’s degree in clams, or at le...

  We went back to the beach, but this time we weren’t just enjoying the view. We were up to serious business: clam digging. We had hoped to do this when the boys were here over Christmas, and got a new clam gun for Christmas, but learned when we looked at the clamming season more closely that it comes and goes, and it wasn’t open when we were planning on going with them. We made our first attempt a couple of weeks ago. I was sick that day, and it was very damp out, maybe 40 degrees and really windy. I immediately found myself about knee deep in water when I wave came in much higher than I expected. I spent much of the rest of that afternoon in the truck. Ann persevered and got about half a dozen clams. We were there about three hours and it felt like 30. This week was much different. It was sunny and about 53. I’m not that sick anymore, and although I gave my virus to Ann, she is also getting over it and was not going to be denied going today. Previously, we had tried at Copalis. T...

  Ford called! My truck was ready! I said goodbye to the loaner 2026 F-150. It was a good substitute, but it was good to get back in the saddle with my own truck. And best of all, it was all covered under warranty.  I’ll take back my previous comments about Ford. Although I’d rather not break down at all, they handled it as well as could be expected when it happened. 

You may have been wondering how we let Mary out, since we live in a house on piers over the water, and the closest land is up 220 stairs. Although the house is entirely over water at high tide, at low tide there is ground beneath us. 

  Well, I've been lookin' real hard And I'm tryin' to find a job But it just keeps gettin' tougher every day… I should have known when troubadour Steve Miller wrote a song about an unsuccessful job search that specifically mentions Tacoma that this wouldn’t be easy. But that was the 1970s, a time when former Tacoma Mayor Harold Moss described the city’s downtown as looking like bombed-out Beirut. But I've learned downtown went through an impressive economic revival in the 1990s and has had some ups and downs since then. It is now a lively downtown. Most impressive to me: There are multiple theaters, each has a large neon sign, and all of the letters on the neon signs work. You won’t see that anywhere else in the country, except perhaps very limited sections of Las Vegas on a particularly good night. Somewhere in Tacoma there must be an exceptional neon sign repairman, and I’d like to shake his hand. The landlady said, "You got the rent money yet?" I sa...

About the time we were preparing to leave Columbia, I applied for a communications position with the Disaster Response Division of the Small Business Administration. I’ve done some disaster response work before. I like the challenge of working in that environment, so I thought it would be worth submitting my application.  I expected the process of applying for a job with the Federal government to be a lengthy one, so I wasn’t concerned that I had a few months to go on my current job. Then the Federal government shut down at the first of October, and I expected the hiring process to pause. Surprisingly, it did not. I kept getting more forms to fill out. I’d turn them in, then get more forms with new deadlines.  At one point I was asked to do a background check, which required me to report to the Federal building in downtown Tacoma with my original birth certificate, social security card and passport and get fingerprinted.  Then I got an email that said “Welcome to the team...

  When Ann and I decided to do something different, but didn’t know where we would end up, I started looking at fully remote jobs. There are a lot of them out there, and many pay very well. Unfortunately, most fall into one of the following categories: 1. Flat Out Fraud: The jobs aren’t real. The employer might be fictitious, or someone might be copying a real employer with a fake post and fake contact information. They may have a scheme to steal money directly, or they may just be trying to steal Personal Identity Information. 2. Companies That Should Know Better: A lot of these are real, legitimate private businesses, charities and non-profits. They post a high-paying, fully remote job that sounds fun and has rather light criteria for applicants. You apply, and quickly get a response back thanking you for the application, telling you that you’re a great candidate, and while you wait, perhaps you’d like to subscribe to their publication or become a member of their organization. I’...

  Back to the travelogue portion of the life of the Midwesterners gone west, we did some more exploring on Saturday, with our first off-shore experience since the move. When we go trail running in the woods of Point Defiance Park which starts at the top of our hill where we park our car, we can see a ferry boat crossing the water from the other side of the park to Vashon Island. Saturday, we took the ferry, which was a big day of exploration, even though the ferry terminal is less than 1 ½ miles from our house. The ferry ride was just over $30 for two people in a vehicle, and was a pleasant experience. The big boat is so smooth you can’t tell when it starts and stops moving. There’s a nice enclosed area upstairs with a snack bar, ample table seating and even puzzles. Go upstairs again and there’s a big open-air deck. We didn’t see any whales, but just being on the water for this little bit was enough to inspire Ann to want to look into getting a boat again.  Once on the island...

  I received a text for a rental agreement on Thursday. I filled it out and then called Ford to see what was up. They said they had a car available now, and since my truck is down for a warranty issue they would provide it gratis. I quickly said goodbye to the Rogue and Ford sent an Uber to Hertz to pick me up, and then handed me the keys to a 2026 F-150. It’s a better looking truck than mine. It has a kind of cool blackout kit on the lights, and I like the black wheels. The seats have this little yellow piping that looks good, and matches a yellow vent in the fender. The options aren’t quite as good as our truck. No moonroof, no heated seats, a smaller screen and you have to insert a metal key into a lock and turn it clockwise to start the engine like it's the 1950s. But it’s so new, with only a few thousand miles on it, so that’s fun. I’ve already missed the Rogue when I was trying to squeeze it into parking spots, though. 

 With my job with the Missouri Conference concluding at the end of last year, this is my week being unemployed. I spent the last week working full-time, filling out applications. Before I get into that, I’d like to tell you about a few guys I’ve met out here. When we first arrived in Tacoma, we soon met a co-worker of Ann’s… let’s just call him Ron. Ron was a young, charismatic guy, full of energy and positivity. He was running tree-give-away events, and doing so with professionalism and efficiency. He looked like he could just as easily have walked into a skyrise executive boardroom and run a meeting for some multi-national corporation. He seemed like exactly whom everyone would want to hire. “So, what’s Ron’s background?” I asked Ann. “I don’t know. He’s part-time,” she said. “What?” I was kind of floored. “Yeah, he’s only 20 hours a week. Doesn’t get benefits or anything,” she said. I replied, “Well, not everyone has the same opportunities. Maybe he didn’t get to go ...

Ford called me this morning! They had good news and bad news. The good news was they diagnosed the problem as my hybrid battery. The hybrid system on this truck came with an 8-year, 100,000 mile warranty to allay the fears of people like myself who are wary of new tech. It went into service in 2022 (even though it’s a 2021) and has 66,000 miles, so plenty of warranty left.  The bad news? The battery is backordered, and it could be a month before they get one in.  My truck has 430 hp, can do 0-60 in 5.3, 100 mph in the ¼ mi., and can tow more than 12,000 pounds. It has a 7.2 kw generator built-in that can power an entire house, or equipment like a welder, chopsaw and plasma cutter. It seats five full-size adults very comfortably.  My rental car, a Nissan Rogue, can’t do any of those things. But since I’ve been in Tacoma, I haven’t done any of those things in my Ford, either.  One thing the truck doesn’t do is fit easily into a small, strangely angled parking spot. Tha...

  Tacoma is north of Ottawa (so I'm told, I haven't checked) and it has palm trees. I think this is because the marine layer prevents hard freezes, but I'm not the tree person in the family, so don't quote me on any of this. I am going to share a few pictures I'll simply call "Weird Trees", which include new trees growing out of old tree stumps, something I've seen here a lot. 

 No truck updates yet, but here are some pics from taking Mary out to the beach at night. The starfish are everywhere. The last pic is a squid egg capsule.