Tag: COVID-19

Sweet Lorane Community News – July 2, 2021

July 2, 2021Uncategorized, , , , Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
July 2, 2021
By Pat Edwards

I hope everyone was able to enjoy the 4th of July this past weekend. More importantly, I hope that each of us, regardless of which way we lean on the political spectrum, took the time to really appreciate how blessed we are to live in this wonderful country as we celebrated its birthday. Patriotism isn’t just flag waving; it’s showing respect for not only our flag, but for all of those Americans it represents. The democracy that has made it great must be cherished and protected as must the rights that our U.S. Constitution provides each and every one of us. May God Bless America!

Now that the COVID restrictions have been lifted in our state, we can now begin to resume more “normal” lifestyles, but it’s obvious that it’s going to take a bit of time. Jim and I went to the Olive Garden the other day for lunch after the restrictions were lifted. There was a half-hour wait and when we were called in to be seated, the waiter apologized for the delay. The seating still appeared to be at 50% occupancy and the waitress was obviously busy. She apologized each time she passed our table, saying that she’d be with us as soon as possible. When she arrived at our table to take our orders, she explained that they are not able to open to full occupancy because they are short on employees. It seems that few people are applying to work these days.

After lunch, we went to the Verizon store on Coburg Road to figure out why our internet at the store has not been working well. After we checked in, we were told that our wait would be about 45 minutes before we could be waited on… they were short-handed and were having trouble meeting the needs of their customers in a timely manner. We see so many “help wanted” signs around town… not just in fast-food places, either. It’s time to get our economy moving by filling vacant jobs. There are a lot of good ones out there.

Lorane has some upcoming events scheduled and I’m sure there will be others announced soon.

The Lorane Grange is bringing back its monthly family Dinner and Bingo Night, but instead of dinner this time, it will be dessert only. It will be taking place on Friday, July 16, at 7:00 p.m. All ages are welcome. It’s always been a fun evening to visit with neighbors, laugh and enjoy being a bit social again. Please mark it on your calendars and join us. Proceeds go to grange projects throughout the year.

The Lorane Community Association and Lorane Grange are planning a community-wide yard/garage sale on Saturday, August 14. You can opt to have your sale at your home in Lorane or rent a table from the grange. Maps to all of the participating sales will be provided at each stop. To sign up, contact Louise McClure or a member of either organization.
A lot of progress is being made on the Territorial Highway project at Stony Point, north of Lorane. Currently, much of the pavement has been removed through the curves and the reroute of where the new road will go is evident. Vehicles must pass through on one-way gravel areas and its imperative that everyone wait until a green light is given them before proceeding. A few incidents of impatient drivers moving forward on red have caused near-collisions on the narrow routes. There is no room to pass when you meet on-coming traffic. Let’s stay safe by adding a few more minutes to our travel time to compensate for the delays. We are all anxious for this major construction project to be completed. Thanks to all of those who are working so hard to make it happen.

Sweet Lorane Community News, March 18, 2021

March 18, 2021Newspaper Columns, , , , , 2 Comments

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
March 18, 2021
By Pat Edwards

As a weekly columnist for two local newspapers, I have found it difficult in the last year to come up with something to write about each week. Oh… there have been plenty of national and world-wide things to write about, but trying to write about what’s been happening locally in our community of Lorane has not been easy. The war on COVID-19 that has necessitated the shutdown of so much in our lives, has taken its toll on all of us, but with the arrival and beginning of the distribution of the vaccines, the skies seem a bit bluer as we look to the future.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, without much locally to write about, I have tried to use my columns as a way of journaling these truly historic, remarkable and tragic times we have been living through that have affected our lives in so many ways. Many of us have lost people who have personally touched our lives—family members, friends, acquaintances and even celebrities—to COVID-19. They are among the 538,000 deaths caused by this horrible disease in the U.S. to date.

The pandemic has been bad enough, but we have also had to endure a close-up and personal view of the tragedy Mother Nature can wreak upon our neighbors and friends living in the path of this past summer’s wildfires throughout Oregon, destroying homes and entire towns and leaving devastation in their wake.

Political tensions that began throughout the nation over the response to the coronovirus protocols calling for the wearing of masks and social distancing became more pronounced when the Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd, an African-American who died at the knee of a Minnesota police officer, came to the forefront in June.
These same political tensions grew and accelerated through the summer and fall and by the time that the November 3rd Presidential election came around in the midst of a pandemic, we were a nation divided and our world exploded on January 6, 2021 when insurgents stormed our nation’s beautiful Capitol Building to try to nullify the outcome of the election.

I wrote about each of these events in my columns, but those weeks in between were a challenge. Because of COVID, local events, activities and in-person school throughout Oregon were cancelled, businesses closed, travel has become rare and dangerous and the economy has declined. Working, studying and staying at home has been the norm for almost everyone whose situation will allow it. Most meetings and family and social contacts have been done via Zoom, face-timing or other electronic means. We women have forgotten what we looked like with makeup—especially lipstick— and many men have grown beards.

Those blue skies that I mentioned at the beginning of this column are a sign that maybe—just maybe—there will soon be family gatherings, vacations, summer festivals, camping, barbeques and other social activities that I can write about once again.

Jim and I got our second Pfizer COVID vaccine last Sunday. I felt a little “unwell” for a couple of hours on Monday, and by Tuesday and Wednesday, with the sun shining, my energy level was back. Fortunately, Jim had no adverse reactions to the vaccine.

With the renewal of spring 2021, hope and happiness are on the horizon and, quite frankly, I’m ready to smile again.

Sweet Lorane Community News, October 22, 2020

October 22, 2020Newspaper Columns, , Leave a comment

Fern Ridge Review
Creswell Chronicle
Sweet Lorane Community News
October 22, 2020
By Pat Edwards

Our ballots arrived in the mail last week and we marked them right away and dropped them into the big white ballot box in the Walmart parking lot in Eugene on Monday when we went to town. It felt good knowing that we have done our parts in such an important responsibility in the democratic process. A few days later, we went to the website set up by the Oregon Secretary of State (google “My Vote Oregon“), and checked the status of our ballots to make sure they had been received. Sure enough, after filling out my info, a screen popped up with the notation, “Your ballot was received on October 20, 2020.” Our votes will be counted.

I suggest that anyone who is nervous about whether or not yours are received through either mail-in or drop-off voting do the same thing to put your mind at ease. Most important of all, if you haven’t voted yet, please do so right away. Don’t take a chance by voting at the last minute as many tend to do. Get your vote in now so that you know for sure that your voice has been heard in this election.

Jim and I are registered in different parties, but we seldom vote a party line. There have been years when we have canceled out each other’s vote, but not this one. Now that we have officially voted, we are bracing ourselves for the final week of incessant campaign ads geared to try and change minds at the last minute. I don’t think this is going to happen this year in the presidential race as everyone seems to be pretty deeply entrenched in their own beliefs and loyalties. My hope is that after the final tally is in, we can move on and work towards coming together instead of pushing further and further apart. We all have so much more in common than many of us realize. We all love our country, warts and all. I don’t know of anyone who plans to give up their citizenship. Most of us have friends and family who are opposite politically but, despite their differences, we respect them, enjoy their company, and consider them “good people.” Let’s all accentuate those qualities that we respect in each other instead of digging down to try and find things about them that we don’t agree with.

Once this pandemic is reined in, my prayer is that we can all once again get together and put, not only the pandemic, behind us, but the decisiveness we are feeling among each other.

Jim and I are hoping that we still will have some years to enjoy our retirement down the road as we have always dreamed of doing, but the spikes in the new cases of coronavirus have risen again and it continues to be a major problem for not only those of us in our purported “golden years,” but for the younger generations who are having problems moving forward with their own lives because of the obstacles to their education, careers and businesses presented by the pandemic.

This week, I fervently ask two things—Vote and follow the CDC guidelines for the coronavirus—so that we can all get back on track as soon as possible… for all of our sakes.