Happy New Year, it will be a dandy, it will be interesting to see who is still standing above ground come 2025. Stay tuned to The Villager for exciting news, features, columns, and editorials in the new year. I might make a few New Year predictions:
l. A cease fire is coming in the Ukraine.
2. No cease fire in Israel.
3. Donald Trump will sweep to re-election.
4. Broncos will make the playoffs.
5. Interest rates will not be lowered.
6. Boebert will be retired from Congress.
7. China will not invade Taiwan.
8. The stock market will rally higher.
9. Food prices will remain high. Gasoline prices will rise.
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I attended the Arapahoe Republican Club breakfast last week and heard Richard Holtorf speak, a candidate for Congress in the 4th Congressional District. He has been the GOP whip in the state legislature. A native of Akron, he is a retired Army Colonel, an Apache helicopter pilot and has served five overseas tours of duty.
He is a part of a third-generation ranching family, married to Mary for 31 years, and operates the Buffalo Springs family ranch. Seems like one of the strongest candidates in the race. More candidates to come in future weeks. HoltorfFor
Colorado.com
Read Freda’s new Be In The Know column starting this week detailing what you need to know about 2024 elections, registration, precinct caucuses, and both political party candidate profiles.
Our policy is that we offer all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, a complimentary press release with photo as we enter the campaign season. Why accept letters on issues, not personal attacks, up to 200 words.
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Congratulations to First American State Bank for winning first place in their annual Toy Drive benefiting Volunteers of America. Kudos to First American banker Michelle Gruber and bank staff for their efforts to gather, wrap and deliver loads of toys that adorned the fes tive bank lobby during the holidays. Cash donations can still be made to the VOA that do so much in providing meals and housing to those in need. Direct donations go to www.voacolorado.org/toydrive
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We’ve been excited to advertise and dine with two new top-flight restaurants newly opened in the DTC area in Greenwood Village. Both restaurants located south of King Soopers at the intersection of Belleview and Yosemite. There is lots of parking for hungry diners. Morning Story offers an excellent menu for breakfast and lunch 7 a.m. to 2:30 daily. I am a huge fan of the “Bacon Flights”. www.morningstoryrestaurant.com
Down the block a short way, same parking area, find the exciting new Oliver’s Italian restaurant. Open for lunch, happy hour (2-6), and dinner with original Italian cuisine, they have an extensive menu of fine wines, and special cocktails. Many original Italian famed delicacies. I’m a fan of their Spicy Vodka Rigatoni with sausage. www.oliversitalian.com.
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I hope that many of you read the feature on Ambassador Sam Zakhem being fitted with hearing aids by Dr. Dusty Jenssen, Au.D at her new Littleton office. I’ve had a somewhat miserable experience with hearing aids having purchased a pair from a firm in Parker that went out of business shortly after my purchase. I’ve limped along until Dr. Dusty came along and tuned up my aging hearing aids, but still good, like the person wearing them. A Centennial resident, Dr. Dusty is highly a qualified audiologist and graciously fitted the ambassador with a great pair of hearing aids. He is so happy and thankful to her. Zakhem is a patriot and wonderful speaker for club programs. You can locate him on the Internet. Hearing concerns call Dr. Dusty at 720-669-8960.
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While good hearing is vital, so is sight. Let me tell you about Ensight, a sight nonprofit with headquarters in Ft. Collins with a branch office in Littleton at the Curtis Strong Center dealing with vision challenges. Ensight Skills Center Inc. provides low-cost visual rehabilitation and empowers independent living. They provide services for macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic eye disease, and any type of eye disease through visual evaluations, advice, training, and tools to maximize your quality of life. Their mission is: “To provide people with low vision the services and resources that empower independent and productive living.” Lions International supports them. www.
ensightskills.org Call 303-757-4500 for appointments. Ensight staff presented a program recently to the Denver Lions Club at their new meeting place at American Legion Post No.1 at Yale and I-25. Lunch with Lions on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month at 12 noon. I invite you to be my guest. Call me at 720-313-9741.
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With the dawning of a New Year, those of us who have survived Covid19, speeding traffic, the flu, and general mishaps we need to be thankful to God for another year to be alive. I have reached an age where many of my friends and colleagues have departed. I miss them dearly. There wasn’t a day that I didn’t talk politics with venerable Mort Marks, who had a brilliant mind. He survived the “Battle of The Bulge” with a silver star framed on his office wall where he authored columns for this newspaper for over 30 years. To my departed friends and Villager newspaper readers, I offer this poem sent to me by one of my surviving longtime friends.
“Immortality, Do Not Stand by My Grave and Weep”
By Clare Harner
(1909-1977)
Do not stand
By my grave and weep,
I am not there.
I do not sleep…
I am the thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint in the snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle, autumn rain.
As you awake with morning hush.
I am the swift, up flinging rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the day transcending night.
Do not stand
By my grave and cry—
I am not there,
I did not die.
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