JOHN DAY — We are sure having a new kind of spring. Snow every day. It is supposed to snow three days in a row this week. Winter forgot where it belongs. It is what it is, so we must carry on.

Linda was thrilled this week when she got several boxes full of all sorts of books and magazines, all sorted and looks really nice. Thanks, Gloria Kulis, for the great haul. You sure made Linda’s day.

On Monday, March 27, Billie Bullard with her daughter was at lunch with us. It was so great to see her out of her home for a bit. She was all smiles and looked very good.

Elsie and Janet were at the desk to greet the 21 in-house diners and make sure their names were on the registration list and in the daily drawings. It is so nice to be at the desk. You get to meet everyone and chat at times. We could use a couple more people to help at the desk so you can also get to know more of us.

Yvonne Majors led the flag salute. Fifty-four fresh meals and 48 frozen meals were delivered to many shut-ins in our community. Rod and Rachel Carpenter, Susan and George Sintay, Jeanette Julsrud and Mike Davis were the drivers. Thanks to all of you for your service of love. This is such a needed service in our area.

Susan and George Sintay were the servers, representing the LDS Church. Thanks, you two, for your service at this lunch. Earl Carlton asked the blessing and then we dined on roast pork, mashed potatoes and gravy, Brussels sprouts, roll and chocolate cake. Yum. Thanks, Shay and Nancy. Nancy is filling in for Darla while she is away. We really appreciate you, Nancy. Thanks also to Chris, who helps in many areas at lunchtime. We really appreciate you, Chris, and we are so glad you came to work with us.

Dave won the Chester’s card and Yvonne won the free meal. Congratulations, you two.

All told we had 125 meals go out of the kitchen today. Four were takeouts.

Darlene and Judy, along with a new volunteer, Sonie Guttu, were at the desk on Thursday, March 30, greeting the 17 in-house diners, seeing that their names were on the registration list and in the daily drawings.

Ron Phillips led the flag salute. Fifty-eight fresh meals were delivered around our community to those who cannot get out to come be with us. The drivers were Peggy and Cindy, Jeanette, Rick, and Veanne and Phyllis. Thanks to all of you for taking time out of your day to do a service of love to others.

Veanne Weddle was our server, representing the hospital auxiliary, and Chis helped. Thanks, you two, for a good job today. Our center survives with volunteers and donations. If you would like to volunteer or donate something or some time, let us know and we will sure find a spot for you. Elsie asked the blessing and then we dined on chicken divan, rice, broccoli, mushroom salad, and German chocolate cake, sponsored by Jeanette Julsrud in honor of Jim Brown’s birthday. What a sweet gesture. Thank you, Jeanette.

Most people got a nice, bright flyer in the mail about rides to medical appointments for the veterans. This is such great news as we have been hearing of men that need rides to their appointments. These rides are with the People Mover and the Veterans Administration.

By the time you read this, our annual meeting will be over. We sure hope you all came that are interested in hearing what has been happening at our center and all that is in the planning for the near future.

Joe Phippen won the Len’s card, and Darlene Nodine won the free meal. We had a total of 85 meals from our kitchen today. Ten were takeouts. Thanks to Shay for cooking and Nancy and Chris for helping with all the other duties that need done to bag up delivery orders and takeouts and all the cleaning up afterwards.

Tomorrow, April 3, lunch will be finger steaks, mashed potatoes with country gravy, peas, bread and butter, with cookies for dessert. Thursday, April 6, will be chicken cordon bleu, broccoli spears, lemon feta orzo, and birthday cake for dessert, sponsored by Driskill Memorial Chapel. Thank you, Driskill Memorial Chapel.

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people which are called by My name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Amen!

PRAIRIE CITY — Radio weather forecast: Winter weather advisory. Expect 6 inches of snow.

Notice from ODOT: Please remove your studded tires by April 1. Hmmm. Seems to be a case that the right hand does not know what the left one is doing. So what else is new?

We had a short crowd today due to the Lenten Luncheon across the street, but that’s life. Son Bert and his family were in attendance and Chris and Theresa had their three granddaughters, so that helped the numbers. What was really bad was that others were gone due to illness so we had to scramble to fill all the slots. One of those slots was tending to the registration book. Pam Howard usually does that, but she was at the luncheon, so I attempted to cover for her. Someone else was supposed to, but she had been home sick all week, so. … Gonna have to have Pam give us some instruction on how to do that job. Vice President Colin led the flag salute, and Tom asked the blessing.

The winner of the March birthday gift certificate donated by Huffman’s Market was Gail Kolb. Our volunteers for the day included Mary, Gwynne, Tom, Colin, Chris, Theresa and all six of the kids. They helped with the meal cleanup and moving things out of the hall for the flooring project next week. Thanks, ladies and gent.

Tom’s “who goes first” question was a bit different today. No trivia, but he put four quotations on the white board and we were to choose which one was not written by the man who wrote the other three. Understand? Well, don’t feel bad. Took us awhile to figure out what he wanted. Turned out that three of the sayings were attributed to Mark Twain and one to Will Rogers. So the table that said which one was Will’s got to go first through the serving line.

And we were served a heaping portion of shepherd’s pie. Then moved to the other serving table where we had a choice of side dishes: Jell-O salad, green salad, cottage cheese, peaches, strawberries, some of last week’s dessert and today’s birthday cake courtesy of Driskill Memorial Chapel. Wow. You shouldn’t have gone away hungry, that’s for sure.

Came across a couple of new words in my reading this week. First is caryatid. No idea what that means! Let’s ask Webster. No wonder I didn’t know what it means. It is a supporting column in ancient temples in the form of a draped, female figure. Don’t run across many of those these days. … The other word is loidable. Don’t know what it means because I couldn’t find it in the big dictionary. If you have a clue, let me know.

Had an unfortunate thing happen while attempting to recline my reclining chair: the bolt that holds the spring to make that happen broke. Well, phooey. Joel says he can fix it, though. Won’t have to get a new one. Well …

Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.

MONUMENT —

Our cooks Terry Cade and Carrie Jewell prepared for us nachos with all the fixings. We also got an assortment of different pies to choose from, courtesy of the CEO of the Blue Mountain Hospital in John Day. He brought the pies from the Dayville Café. You know those were some delicious pies! We were a hungry crowd that day, for many went back for seconds, including me! We thank our wonderful cooks for their unwavering efforts. We appreciate them very much.

Our greeter at the table was Bob Cockrell. Bob checked in all the guests, collected and counted up the money. Jan Ensign helped with the paperwork. Bob led us in the flag salute and made the announcements.

The Monument Senior Center received their final check of $477 from the Cycle Oregon Organization. This event occurred during the summer of 2022.

We had a visit from Cam Marlowe. He is the new CEO of the Blue Mountain Hospital. He came to introduce himself and also to get to know the residents of Grant County that his hospital serves. He wanted to assure us of quality health care and to answer any questions if we had them.

He explained to us that there are three areas that hospitals serve. Urban, rural and frontier. Guess which area we fall under? You guessed it! Frontier! In my words, the boondocks. Ha. Still, I would not trade it for the world.

We all appreciated Cam for coming out and being so personable. It was good PR service. That showed in my eyes, and I am sure to the rest of our town, that he truly cares about our community and the people in it. We thank him for coming out and taking the time out to answer our questions and, of course, bringing all those delicious pies for us to enjoy.

So, to continue my story from the previous week, I went to feed Timmy and Tommy in the evening. It was their last feeding for the day and it was a bit chilly. So I thought I would close the door to the shed and did not think to try and make sure the twine didn’t get tangled up in the latch. I found myself locked in! I pulled the twine but somehow it got stuck and I could not open the door!

I squelched the feeling of panic that was trying to come over me. I am, like, 150 feet from my house. It is dark, late, and the one daughter who knew I was going out to feed the babies went to bed when I came out. This is why I need to listen to my wise hubby, who tells me to let someone know if I am going somewhere on the property. I was, like, ohmygosh. What am I going to do???

I started singing “How Great Thou Art” and praying. I thought to myself and wondered if Joseph felt utterly helpless and hopeless when his brothers had thrown him into a pit, like I was feeling inside the goat shed. Of course my situation was nothing compared to Joseph’s … to be continued.

Luke 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.