JOHN DAY — The weather is finally cool enough to take a walk without becoming exhausted from the heat. Oregon always has blue skies and a few clouds to make it pretty. In Washington, you rarely see the sky, just solid layers of gray smog mixed with the clouds, which are many. It is so nice to be in Oregon.

On Monday, Sept. 11, Dave Pasko was at the desk greeting the 20 diners who came by to sign in and put their names in the drawings. Janet Binger came and worked with Dave until she had to go back to work. Thanks, Janet.

Elsie gathered information and did the announcements, and Dave led the flag salute.

Jodi and Jeff, Rick, Barb and Father Christy delivered 54 fresh meals and some of the 243 frozen meals. Seneca came and picked up some of them, and Misty took many to Long Creek, Dayville and Monument. We really appreciate everyone who is involved in getting meals to seniors around the county. Our delivery people are special with hearts full of love.

St. Elizabeth Catholic Church members were the servers for this lunch. They also were the delivery folks. Thank you all for your service to our center and all seniors in our county.

Father Christy asked the blessing for our meal. Thank you, Father Christy.

Major Moles won the Len’s card, and Joe Phippen won the free meal. Congratulations to both of you.

It was 22 years ago that 9/11 happened, and we will never forget. We have a flag on the wall with the red stripes made with the names of all the people who died that day. It is an amazing flag to see. Thank you, Linda, for hanging it for all to see.

It has been two months since the passing of Jim Maples to his heavenly home. Even though we miss him, we know that he is where he has been planning to be for his whole life. Congratulations, Jimmy. One day we will all be joining you.

On Thursday, Sept. 14, Sonie Guttu and Carol Roe were at the desk seeing that no one got missed signing in and getting names in the drawings. Elsie gathered information and did the announcing. We all said the flag salute together.

The Cornerstone Church members were our servers for lunch. Pati Davis and Jeanette Julsrud assisted Darla getting the filled plates out. Linda helped for a bit to get it done quicker. Shay was ill and was not present, so the ladies did a great job. Thanks to all of you. Pati asked the blessing, and we dined on sausage with peppers and onions over rice, pinto beans in cornbread bowls, and snickerdoodles and ice cream for dessert. Shay plans so well ahead of time, and we are blessed to have him on our team. Darla, his assistant, and other helpers can just fill in because of his great planning.

Fifty-four fresh meals were delivered over the county to senior residents by Jeanette, Jodi and Jeff, and Meloni today. Thank you all for your service of love.

Judy Thomas won the Chester’s card and Vern Piper won the free meal. Congratulations to both of you.

We have been experiencing some problems with our walk-in refrigerator, and Tuesday a crew came and installed a new ventilator fan. Now that it is working, we should not have any more worries. It is nice when we get a diagnosis and the treatment works.

A friend of our center, Ray Souza, brought in several dozen eggs and several cabbages that were so large he had to quarter them to fit into bags for people to carry them in. Wow! He also brought a variety of garden produce. There were several types of squash, zucchini, cucumbers, kale, chard and beet greens and even some seedless purple grapes. Other folks also brought in some fresh produce, tomatoes, cucumbers and pears. It was so great to see so much fresh produce in one place for the purpose of sharing with others. Thanks to everyone who brought in produce. Chester’s always has items they donate to our center on a table as well. Many people are blessed with all this good food.

Tomorrow, Thursday, Sept. 21, lunch will be turkey and gravy over mashed potatoes, veggies, rolls, and cook’s choice for dessert. Then, on Monday, Sept. 25, lunch will be sloppy Joes, French fries, relish tray, and cook’s choice for dessert.

Psalms 34:1 Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

MONUMENT — Bob Cockrell and Sue Cavender, our greeters at the table, welcomed everyone to the senior lunch. They checked in all the guests, collected and counted up the money, along with Jan Ensign. Bob led us in the flag salute. Judy Harris made the announcements. Yours truly prayed the blessing over the meal.

The Flying Tigers had two young ladies who were there to sell some baked goods to help fund their trip for next year. They had such items as homemade cheesecake, various sorts of cookies, zucchini bread, and they even had homemade churros! They will have a bake sale at the Monument Senior Center every second Tuesday. Please come support our local kids.

Terry Cade and Carrie Jewell made us some sweet and sour chicken with steamed rice, a fresh green salad, and a couple of different desserts to choose from. We thank and appreciate our cooks very much. I refrained from getting a second helping, so I did not have food coma when I got home. LOL.

Are y’all ready to celebrate with us to officially welcome fall? The Monument Buckaroo Fall Festival is just around the corner and fast approaching! It will be a wonderful day for the whole family. The 4-H kids will be selling lunch and other goodies at noon. You may delight in live music as you eat and participate in the games that the whole family can enjoy. There will be face-painting for the kids.

There will be a huge selection of silent auction items up for bid. Please come early so that you can receive your auction bidding number. There will also be the live auction going on around 3 p.m., and there are some pretty nice items that may warrant your attention.

The salmon and elk dinner will be served starting at 4:30 or 5 p.m. and continuing until 7 p.m. The dessert auction will be at 5:30 p.m. While enjoying your dinner, you may want to bid on some delectable desserts.

The silent auction will close exactly at 5 p.m. There will be a rifle drawing at 6 p.m. You do not have be present in order to win this raffle. To win either the man’s or the woman’s door prize, you must be present . These prizes are valued at approximate $300 each. Good luck!

The dinner may be paid for in cash or by check. The auction items may be paid for with cash, debit card, check or credit card. You might want to bring a little extra just in case you find that item that you just absolutely fell in love with and had to have. Everyone worked well with each other and really helped put this very big event together. We thank everyone who has helped in any way, shape or form, and we really appreciate everyone’s efforts in making the Buckaroo happen.

Hope to see you all there on Saturday, Sept. 23!

I think I will be having my billy boy goats mix with my girls at the end of October. That should put me at having babies at the end of March, beginning of April. Hmm.

Psalms 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight O LORD, my strength, my Redeemer.

PRAIRIE CITY — Ah. Good. Friday the 13th came on Wednesday this month. Whew. Don’t want anything to interfere with our upcoming fall next week. Ahem.

We had some kind of inspection today, and they really got out early! I was at the hall at 9:30 to take care of the bookwork for the board meeting next week, and there were people running all over the place looking at every nook and cranny. Found two minor infractions: need an exit sign over the kitchen door, and the fire extinguishers need looked at. Hey, that’s not our fault. Those people quit coming during the COVID fiasco and have never reappeared. We’ve been making noises for a few months, but nothing has happened. So what are we supposed to do? Hmmm?

OK, enough ranting. Colin led the flag salute, and Tom asked the blessing.

Sharon Thissell was the winner of the gift certificate donated by Valeria at Chuck’s Little Diner. Our volunteers included Mary, Sharon, Gwynne, Theresa, Tom, Teresa, and Misty. Due to medical appointments, school substitutions, vacation trips and a wedding anniversary trip, we will be experiencing a shortage of volunteers for a few weeks, so some changes will be made in the “order of service.” Listen for those changes when Ginger gives the announcements.

We managed to get everything accomplished for this meal, so things shouldn’t be too out of whack later.

Pam and Pam, our wonderful cooks, prepared chicken alfredo, cucumber salad, and coconut cream pie for dessert. To add to that was a slice of garlic bread, apricots, grapes and potato salad. When I saw the menu, I wondered how you would make a cucumber salad. Well, I found out! It’s pretty good, too. And, of course, the coconut cream pie was delicious.

Tom’s trivia: Give a big hand to Milton Hershey, who was born this day in 1857. Took him three tries to get the Hershey milk chocolate candy bar perfected. And aren’t you glad he did?! John J. Pershing of WWI fame was born in 1860 and he said, “Never give an order that cannot be obeyed.” In 1922 the temperature in Libya was 136.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade. Francis Scott Key wrote the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner” in 1814. And in 1965, Willie Mays hit his 500th home run. Instead of the table that correctly answered a trivia question, Tom let the table that had new people sitting at it go first to the serving window. So they did, and we followed.

Tried to get updates accomplished on my computer over Labor Day. It tried really hard, but finally determined that the graphics card was too old. Well! As long as it will do my bookkeeping, WordPerfect, and play two different games of solitaire, I’m happy. Just so I would have said solitaire in some form, the computer person put on a couple of newer versions. Oh, my. All the bells and whistles! Takes three steps to exit one lost game to go to another. The old game had one step. Ahem. I rest my case.

2 Cor. 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.