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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2018)
Seniors Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, March 7, 2018 A9 G RANT C OUNTY S ENIORS John Day Seniors Nicky Essex My note-taking has failed. Feb. 26, a little over a week ago, I think I remember Olivia Cornell and Bonnie Kocis at the greeter’s desk. If wrong, I am sorry. I will do better. Our service group was from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Suzanne Taysom and Rachel Carpenter did ta- ble service after running the 2-hour meal deliveries for John Day and Canyon City, while David Gill and his crew took the Mt. Vernon deliver- ies. Altogether, there were 36 regular and 36 frozen meals delivered. Thank you, faithful volunteers. Suzanne opened our time together by leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Pat Amling won the Len’s Drug certificate, and Corinne Sten- nett won the free meal in the drawings. Rachel gave the blessing on our meal. We loved the fish and chips with coleslaw, garlic toast and, for “National Pistachio Day,” pistachio de- light ice cream, of course. We filled four tables with diners. Thanks to Old West Fed- eral Credit Union for their gift of having our parking lot cleared of snow. I can’t name the angel who did the work for us and other local places, but Tom Roark is a great friend of ours here at the John Day Senior Center. I also heard that Carl Swank snuck in before we were here to clear the walks. Thanks so much. Thursday, March 1, found Jeanette Julsrud and Everett King at the desk. Our service group was from the John Day Church of the Nazarene, led by Trace Andrew. With her were Dale and Corinne Sten- nett, Vickie Harrison, Ever- ett King and Pastor Randy Johnson. Joan and Joel Tayles made deliveries to the John Day and Canyon City area, while the Step Forward crew, led by David Gill, made the deliveries to Mt. Vernon. Hot meals delivered totaled 38. I know that every single one was appreciated. Dale Stennett led us in a rousing Pledge of Allegiance to open our time together, and our drawing produced win- ners, David Turner (Chester’s Thriftway certificate) and Carl Swank (free Valley View meal). Pastor Randy led us in thanksgiving for a wonder- ful meal. We ate hand-bread- ed chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and cream gravy, veggies, whole wheat dinner rolls and birthday cake, thanks to Driskill Me- morial Chapel. Per Lisa: It was “National Dad Gum It’s Good Day,” and we all agreed. March 8, we’ll have spa- ghetti, and March 11, we’ll have chicken and white bean chili. Come play bingo every Thursday after lunch. Chef Shay Lewis is final- ly going to see a doctor (an endocrinologist) who could uncover the mystery of all of those broken ribs he has been having. Please pray for him. Psalm 84:10 “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” Monument Seniors Soo Yukawa For our last meal of the month of February, our cooks Terry Cade and Carrie Jewell made us some nice hot turkey sandwiches, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots and cooler cake for our dessert. They did a great job of feeding a hungry crowd. Our greeters were Bodean Andersen, Debbie Reid and Linda Blakeslee. Bodean led us in the flag salute, made the announcements and prayed the blessing of our meal for us. Debbie and Linda collect- ed and counted the money. Rusty Baughman was the fortunate winner of the Ches- ter’s Thriftway gift card. Ed Falls and Donna Campbell both won free meal tickets. We thank all the generous sponsors. We had Trisha Davis of Mitchell join us for lunch along with Mark W. and four students from the Portland area. These students came with the teacher from Skills USA to do some welding at Monument School. Lonnie Lawrence had a call from Katee from Canyon City regarding help for any of our veterans. Please contact her for assistance. Jan Ensign made the an- nouncement that the grant for a new mixer and dishwasher for the senior center has come in. We thank the Lord and all who made it possible. Mark your calendars. The rummage sale will be held on April 21. I’m sure that you will find that “special trea- sure” you’ve been looking for. Donations are now being accepted. These include gen- tly used clothing and working appliances and the like. Drop- off days would be Tuesdays. The snow is slowly melting here in Monument. There’s lots of patchy snow areas still in the upper elevations. I won’t complain; we sure need it. I think many of us were a little shocked that we got so much snow all of a sudden. Because of some sunny days we’ve been having, the snow has become more wet. Well, this called for some snowmen making and, yes, most defi- nitely some snowball fights. My little “kids,” aka the baby goats, are romping and jumping around in the snow. I let them out of the shed since we’ve been having some very gorgeous sunny days. They love to jump around and play. They have untied my snow- shoes and have nibbled or tried to nibble on my clothes and gloves. They are quite cu- rious little creatures. I know this may sound a little weird, but I don’t know why I love to watch the ani- mals chewing and chomping on the hay and grass. I find it totally fascinating and relax- ing to watch them eat. I mean, I could sit there for hours and just watch them eat and eat. Of course, I wonder what the grass tastes like and other such thoughts. Do they “enjoy” it? You know, kind of like how some of us love to eat and food tastes so good to us. Hopefully in a month or two, I can start to think about planning my garden for the summer. I hope I get to plant lots of different veggies. Proverbs 10:27 “The fear of the LORD prolongs days, But the years of the wicked will be shortened.” Prairie City Seniors Rose Coombs Ah, the last day of Febru- ary. Only three more weeks till spring. And if you have lived in Grant County any length of time, you know that the date on the calendar will probably not mean a thing. We just hope it gets here by May 1. So it was our February birthday recog- nition day. Ginger found three February celebrants. And it was Ken Koser’s birthday. He tried to wiggle out of acknowledging it, but it was kind of hard to do when Marjean was letting ev- eryone know. One of the others was on Feb. 29, so we celebrat- ed hers, too. The winner of the $10 gift certificate donated by Huffman’s Market was Jim- my Lunzmann. So we all sang Happy Birthday to all three cel- ebrants. Juan Rubio led the flag salute, and Carla Wright asked the blessing. We were sorry to hear that the Retherfords have been ill with the Grant County crud. Get well soon, OK? We miss you. Larry, Ken, Carlos and Scott took care of the home deliver- ies. Pam was at her post at the registration desk. Leone, Bon- nie and Del helped with the cleanup afterward. Carla and I counted the money. There were 58 names on the book. And we ate baked pork chops with cheese, rice, coleslaw, fruit cocktail and German chocolate cake for dessert. Wow, was it ever good. We also have mango and grape juice, milk and but- termilk, coffee, decaf and tea for your drinking enjoyment. Lorna and Krystin brought Thelma Kite, Marilyn Randall, Bud Salisbury and Gordon Sindt from the Blue Mountain Care Center. Other first-timers were Elsie Huskey and Mike Rose. Welcome and come again. The pet peeve of the day is the ubiquitous phone tree used by most businesses these days. It might be handy for the busi- ness, but it sure raises the blood pressure for the poor soul who is trying to reach a live per- son, especially if you are not expecting it to be a phone tree. Called a medical establishment (who shall remain nameless) to inquire about a future ap- pointment. Was dismayed to encounter the dreaded phone tree. But I listened and did as instructed and left a message. No call back for 24 hours. So called again and got an expand- ed message: In an emergency, call these numbers for the doc- tor. All right. That’s good to have. So left another message. Still no word. Two hours later, I tried again. After another two hours, I called the doctor’s cell number. A very quizzical voice answered. Told them who I was and what the problem was and they were very surprised. But, lo and behold, the IT guy was there so he put me on speaker so he could hear my unhappi- ness with this “modern” con- venience. They had all kinds of reasons why my message nev- er got through. Not my prob- lem. So the doctor answered my question and I left them to their head-scratching. Why can I call big companies and get a live operator, but little busi- nesses think they have to “keep up with the changing times?” There is a happy medium be- tween old and slow and new and fast. End of rant. Ecclesiastes 7:10 “Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better then these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions.” Church Services In Grant County Come Worship with us at