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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 2017)
A6 Seniors Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, August 30, 2017 G RANT C OUNTY S ENIORS John Day Seniors Nicky Essex There was no lunch Mon- day, Aug. 21, due to three days of eclipse brunch. We had a wonderful weekend with many incredible vol- unteers, in addition to our kitchen staff, Shay, Lisa and Danny; our thanks to Vickie Harrison, Ron Dowse, Bonnie Kocis, Dusty and Yog Har- ris, Carman Gomez-Pascual, David Turner, Trace Andrew, Curt Pereira, Jeanette Julsrud, Sharon Smith, Drew Harmer, Gene Essex and George. We had so many nice visitors, and there is no room here to list them, but they were so com- plimentary and grateful for the good food and fellowship. It was well worth the effort. My apologies for last week’s column. My best guess is I don’t know how to explain it. I’m fighting with my old com- puter. Veanne is going to have a class starting in mid-October. Some of you know about it, but I didn’t, so I know there are others who may need this info. “Living Well with Chronic Conditions” is a six- week workshop to be held here at the John Day Senior Center, and I have heard great things about it. The class is free, and that includes a $30 book. For more information or to sign up, contact Veanne at 541-575-2949 or vean- neweddle@centurylink.net. The senior center will be closed on Monday, Sept. 4, due to Labor Day. No lunch. On Thursday, Aug. 24, Bonnie Kocis and Ron Dowse were greeters. The folks from St. Elizabeth Catholic Church who were here to serve our guests included David Turner, Walt and Agnes Hall and Jim- my Maple. David and Jimmy did the meal delivery in John Day and Canyon City while Amber and Rodney from Step Forward did the Mt. Vernon route for a total of 41 meals delivered. We had a couple of visitors who have been here before, but I haven’t mentioned them, so welcome to Carol Ashby and Chris Olwine. It is good to have you here with us. Walt Hall led us in the sa- lute to our American flag to open our time together. Our drawing winners were Chris Olwine, who won the Valley View meal, Don Porter, who won the Chester’s Thrift- way certificate and Gene Es- sex, who won the Harrison Ranch Produce certificate to be redeemed at the Saturday market. Jimmy Maple led the prayer for our meal, and we dug in. Our entrée, chicken rosemary ravioli with tomato cream sauce, was provided by Ansel Krutsinger and was fol- lowed by vegetables, French bread, a lovely green salad and assorted Danish delights for dessert. Thanks for many dona- tions of fresh produce, Carol Roe, Sharon Smith, Jimmy Maple and others. We also owe thanks for the generous donation of the many books. Some of our books were tak- en to enjoy by the eclipse visi- tors. We are so blessed. We play bingo after lunch at 1 p.m. Thursdays. Come on down. Next Thursday, we will dine on Hawaiian chick- en with rice. Hebrews 4:7: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” Monument Seniors Soo Yukawa Our great cooks Terry Cade and Carrie Jewell pre- pared for us a hearty meal of meat-and-potato casserole, fresh green salad, macaroni salad and fruit tart for dessert. We thank our cooks for their hard work in feeding us. Our greeters were Bodean Andersen, Jimmy Cole and Linda Blakeslee. Bodean led us in the flag salute, made the announcements and prayed the blessing over our meal. Jimmy and Linda counted and collected the money. The win- ners of free meals were Bruce Kramer and Bodean Anders- en. We had many visitors join us this week. We had Bode- an’s sister-in-law Sandy Nash and her boyfriend Bill McK- inney from Paso Robles, Cal- ifornia. We had Michael Voigt from Prairie City, Dick and Pam Wanous from Spray and Ron and Sherry Allen from Olympia, Washington, join us for lunch. We welcome Ron and Sherry to the community of Monument. They are the new owners of the Monument RV Park. I have a confession to make: I really didn’t under- stand what the big deal was about the solar eclipse. Now that I have witnessed it first- hand, I must admit and ac- knowledge that it was pretty awesome. Our great God showed his power and mighty hand in creating this solar eclipse. It was so amazing to see it slowly get darker and darker and the temperature slowly getting colder too. Praise the name of Jesus, the creator of the heavens and the earth. Just want to shout out praises also to all who helped in the endeavors of providing meals for all the visitors. We thank all our volunteers from the people who gave up their time to attend meetings on preparations for the meals. We want to acknowledge those who gave their time in shopping for the event. Thank you all for those who did the prep work days before the event. We thank all who came to make the meals, those who served the meals and the vol- unteers for the clean-up. Many hands make the workload lighter. I loved how so many of our communi- ty came together to provide meals for the eclipse visitors. We had so many visitors com- ment how they enjoyed the meals, and they really appre- ciated our community. I think many went back home appreciating and getting a taste of what living out here is like. I’m sure they saw the beauty of the John Day Riv- er, the beauty of being able to see the stars at night because we don’t have light pollution. They saw the beauty of just visiting with people rather than being on their electronic gadgets. I hope they got to ex- perience firsthand the mean- ing of living in a close-knit community. I hope they went back home feeling a pang of longing when they reminisce of being in Monument. Another highlight I needed to mention, we had 35 planes at the Monument airport for the eclipse. How cool was that? Luke 21:25 “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars.” Prairie City Seniors Rose Coombs Well, did the eclipse live up to its buildup for you? And ar- en’t we blessed that the smoke did not appear on that day, but after? Some trivia tidbits that I found: The total eclipse be- gan at 10:16 a.m. PDT on the Oregon coast and exited on the South Carolina coast at 2:47 p.m. EDT. That’s only 93 minutes. (How “they” came up with that figure, I can’t answer.) The longest a total eclipse can last is seven minutes, 31 sec- onds. The reason why the time varies as the shadow travels has to do with the speed with which the earth spins and your loca- tion on the earth. At the equa- tor, the speed is 1,040 miles per hour. At 40 degrees north latitude it’s only 790 miles per hour. During the solar eclipse the shadow of the moon is moving at over 1,000 miles per hour. When the next one comes to the United States in 2024, the shadow will travel from Texas to Maine. Now think about this: the lines of travel from this year’s and the future one, pres- ent the image of a cross. Hmm. OK, so much for that. On to the here and now. Tom, Julia and Ellie pre- sented us with a great meal: orange juice, peach-flavored iced tea, green salad, scalloped potatoes, chicken and veg- gies, homemade bread sticks and vanilla pudding with real whipped cream on top. Um, um. Scrumptious. Veanne led the flag salute, and Jack asked the blessing. Our gift certificate donated by Prairie Hardware & Gifts went to Jim Howard. The other an- nouncement was that we are looking for a new head cook. If you want to apply, go to the Employment Office. Again the Blue Mountain Care Center did not get to come. So sorry. Tom brought in some of his homegrown zucchini to give away. Then Taci brought in a couple of bags of goodies that people who’d come for the eclipse had left for the seniors. Well, thank you so much. That was very nice. The piano tuner, David Seacord, stopped in to make sure the piano was still playable and favored us with a number. The food for thought: “Laughter is an instant vaca- tion.” – Milton Berle. The dance/concert we had on Aug. 18 was a success. The music took me back to the old days at the all-night dances that I attended as a child in the Pine Creek Grange Hall out of Drewsey. I could just envision the folks out on the floor doing the “Drewsey Stomp.” Those people went to dance, not just move two inches this way and two inches that way. We get a big kick out of new movies/ TV shows that purport to show people dancing. Hah. Ah, nos- talgia. Anyway, those who at- tended had a good time, and that’s what was intended. I was afraid that all the amps, mics and other gizmos might blow our circuits, but everything held together, PTL. I won the prize at Quilts & Beyond for my eclipse needle- point and latch hook since no one else entered anything. Even had one person who wanted to buy. Wow. But he thought my price was too high. That’s OK. Didn’t want to sell anyhow. Ps. 149:3 “Let them praise His Name with dancing and make music to Him with tam- bourine and harp.” Church Services In Grant County Come Worship with us at
