Nov 30 2020 thru Dec 6 2020

I met a woman this week who will be turning 50 years old next year. She asked me a few questions about her sign and wondered about next year’s influence of the moon on her sign. She and her mother faced a few rough years, and finally this month they were able to move into their new home. She wondered if she could trust the new luck they have just encountered. The daughter said she was out of work intermittently for a couple of years and moved in to live temporarily with her mother.

In today’s “information at your fingertips” world, everyone’s an expert. Whether it’s domestic skills like plumbing, electricity, carpentry, fencing, cooking, and fitness, everything you need to know is one YouTube video away. Even better, the accessibility of even the most-advanced human knowledge has expanded into fields like brain surgery, nuclear physics, cancer treatments, and even rocket science. Who needs a costly education, and years of study when you have the Internet? Why trust others to make important decisions when there is a vast pool of people willing to share all things medical, political, social, and economic? With all the smarts out there, who needs the eggheads?

I was a freshman at San Jose State University when, on a three-day weekend, I went on what was my very first steelhead fishing trip on the Klamath River in northern California. It was 1973. I had heard about this hard-fighting fish since I was a kid and now I was within a reasonable range. After driving all night, I found a place to camp on a gravel bar a few miles upriver from the Ishi Pishi rapid. As luck would have it (because believe me I had no clue), I had arrived at the gravel bar by the river on a prime September day, with magnificent water conditions and found a river that was teeming with migrating steelhead.

“My footsteps echo down the empty halls each morning as I step into our darkened school. Last year at this time, we were experiencing the bustle and gleaming bright energy of teens interacting with each other. Now, I face a day with little actual human interaction other than my amazing custodians and secretary. Day after day, I peer into the computer, trying to make a connection with people who are physically not in the same space. As an extrovert, the challenges of this work are real, and precious communication can become lost in translation." - Ame Beard, Principal, Academy of Arts and Academics

The Medicare open enrollment period ends Monday, Dec. 7. What does it mean to you? The Chronicle provides a simplified explanation. This is not meant to be a comprehensive review of options; you can find that online at medicare.gov. There are three major parts to Medicare: Part A (hospital insurance), Part B (medical insurance for outpatient things), and Part D (prescription drugs). An important thing to know is that if you’re already on Medicare and are satisfied with your coverage and your program, you don’t have to do anything.

Although Lane County’s Covid case rate is too high to return students to in-person instruction, South Lane School District has already started to update its hybrid model plan to give families an idea of what school will look like when students are able to return. For Kindergarten through third grade, students will either attend for three hours in the morning or afternoon on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Thanksgiving is all about making time to reflect on the many things in life for which we are grateful. In conversations around the dinner table, Oregon Farm Bureau urges readers to remember the farm and ranch families who grew the food you’ll be enjoying not only on Thanksgiving day, but all year long. While Oregon isn’t a major producer of turkeys, we do specialize in beef cattle; cattle and calves rank as Oregon’s #3 top agricultural commodity by production value, drawing in over $625 million a year.

As coronavirus case numbers continue to rise, the darkness expands – both on our physical and mental horizons. We’ve been living in a pandemic for 10 months. The weather’s shifted now; the days are shorter, colder, wetter. And for most all of us, our mental health wanes. “It took us six months to go from 25,000 cases in Oregon to 50,000 cases. And through November it took us three weeks to build from 50,000 to 75,000. If you’re looking at just that kind of increase, it is pretty dire right now,” said Jason Davis, public information officer for Lane County Health & Human Services, during a briefing Tuesday.

CRESWELL – Sheriff’s deputies continue to investigate a theft of more than $18,000 in tools and equipment from the City’s Public Works shop last week. One or more thieves broke into the building between Friday evening and early Saturday, said Sergeant Scott Denham of the Lane County Sheriff’s Office. Denham posted a message on Facebook, too, seeking the public’s help with any information on the incident. There is a $500 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

March 12, 1933 - Nov. 19, 2020

Dec. 27, 1932 - Nov. 17, 2020

Oct. 7, 1927 – Nov. 26, 2020

Nov. 4, 1931 – Sept. 19, 2020

Sept. 16, 1954 – Nov. 25, 2020

Jan. 18, 1939 – Nov. 25, 2020

Oct. 31, 1948 – Sept. 29, 2020