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.”
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