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.”
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