COFFEE BREAK
6B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 2020
Ashes have waited 30 years
His
air
dwindling,
avalanche
to be scattered over Hawaii
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
DEAR ABBY: Thirty years ago, a friend
of my husband’s roommate passed away
of AIDS and was cremated. His family
had ostracized him. I have no idea who
they are or where they are. The roommate
left and later died, also from AIDS. He left
his friend’s ashes in his old room in my
husband’s house in the San Francisco Bay
area with instructions to scatter them in
Hawaii.
The ashes have been sitting
reverently in a cardboard box
on a shelf in our several homes
for all these 30 years. We are
still together, but getting old.
There is no paperwork of any kind. All we know
about the deceased is his name and the fact that
he was a friend.
Before I die, I would like to resolve this
problem and arrange for the ashes to have a
permanent resting place, preferably in Hawaii.
I have a nephew who lives on the Big Island,
where the scattering should take place. How
should I proceed, in light of the no paperwork
problem?
— MIKE IN CALIFORNIA
DEAR MIKE: I applaud your caring heart
and your determination to carry out this
man’s last wishes. I took your question to
Joshua Slocum, executive director of the
Funeral Consumers Alliance, and this is
what he told me:
“There is no impediment to your taking
the ashes and placing them where you
wish since there are no relatives who have
an interest in them. If you plan to carry
them on an airplane, be sure to have them
in a scannable container — nothing metal
or such heavy earthenware that an X-ray
scanner would be prevented from seeing
inside. There is no requirement that you
carry a death certifi cate, or any other cer-
tifi cate, with you. You do not need ‘papers’
to walk around with an urn or to travel
with one.
“As far as scattering goes, people scatter
ashes all the time. Cremated remains are
sterile calcium and no threat at all to the
environment. While public lands usually
discourage, or prohibit by rule, scattering of
ashes, it is common practice that cannot be
stopped. Use discretion and care — there is
no such thing as ‘ashes police.’”
survivor faced ‘the inevitable’
DEAR ABBY: I am older and on a fi xed
income. At times I still date, and I’m not sure
how to handle this. After one or two dinners
out or glasses of wine, etc., I feel my dates
are waiting for me to treat them, and I can’t
afford it. I don’t know how to explain that I
don’t have enough money to do that.
I’m a very giving person, and I would love
to make them dinner if I knew them better.
One time I brought someone
a huge amount of beautiful
DEAR
organic vegetables, but that
ABBY
wasn’t enough. He was really
upset I didn’t buy him wine
on one of the dates. What to
do?
— REALLY WISH I COULD
DEAR REALLY WISH: The person who
was really upset that you didn’t buy him
wine on one of those dates should have been
told that you are on a fi xed income and it
wasn’t within your budget. You should also
have told him you were reciprocating within
your ability.
If he needed a drink that badly, he could
have paid for his own. You’re lucky to be rid
of him.
In the future, tell the man you are seeing
that after you know him better, you would
love to treat him to some home-cooked
meals, which might actually be nicer than
what you can afford to buy him in a restau-
rant. He might appreciate both your candor
and the food. If he doesn’t, I think you will be
lucky to be rid of him, too.
By Nicholas Geranios
The Associated Press
KELLOGG, Idaho —
Buried under about 10 feet
of snow after an avalanche
this week at an Idaho ski
resort, Bill Fuzak made
peace with his predicament
and prepared for death.
‘’Ï had already relegated
myself to the inevitable as I
knew the air would not last
long,’’ Fuzak, 62, wrote on
a public Facebook page for
skiers. “I’m really surprised
how calm I felt but knew
there was nothing I could do
but wait and pray.’’
His prayers were an-
swered and Fuzak became
one of four survivors
extricated from Tuesday’s
avalanche at the Silver
Mountain Resort near Kel-
logg, Idaho. Two other skiers
were killed and one is still
missing. The resort re-
mained closed on Thursday
as about 120 searchers with
dogs and a helicopter tried
to fi nd the missing skier
presumably buried in snow.
Fuzak, a skier who lives
in the nearby Spokane,
Washington, area, could
easily have been killed. He
was entombed in the snow
for about 50 minutes, much
longer than most avalanche
survivors.
Unable to move anything
but his right hand, he
cleared snow from his face
and mouth. At some point,
he passed out.
“The fi rst thing I remem-
ber when coming back to
consciousness was a group
of rescuers cheering that a
survivor had been located,
me,’’ Fuzak wrote in what he
DEAR ABBY: How do you cut off a person
who talks constantly without a break? By
the time a lull in her speech, I have forgotten
what I wanted to add to the conversation.
— WORD IN EDGEWISE
IN PENNSYLVANIA
DEAR WORD: I have encountered
compulsive talkers like her. They are
exhausting. Remember, she has to breathe
sometime. The minute she starts to inhale,
start talkin’!
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van
Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and
was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips.
Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or
P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
weather
The Associated Press
The Coeur d’Alene Fire Department K-9 Team responds
to Silver Mountain for an avalanche in Kellogg, Idaho.
Offi cials are searching for a person who was skiing at
an Idaho resort near where avalanches killed two skiers
and injured fi ve others.
called a ‘’personal summary’’
on Facebook about the ordeal.
Fuzak wrote that he was
among a group of skiers
and snowboarders he knew,
heading down Wardner
Peak on a diffi cult run called
16-to-1 at about 11 a.m.
“’The snow started to
fracture above us as well
as below us and the slide
started to propagate and
accelerate,’’ he wrote.
Fuzak then fell and said
he started “swimming to try
and stay on top of the slide.”
The slide eventually
stopped. Completely buried,
Fuzak managed to punch a
hole through the snow that
let air fl ow in.
“Within seconds, another,
more powerful slide hit and
buried my breathing hole
under what felt like feet
of snow,” Fuzak wrote. “At
this point I tried to calm my
breathing and conserve air.”
He passed out and then
woke up to cheers from the
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
43/48
Kennewick
44/46
St. Helens
43/47
40/47
36/48
44/48
44/47
Condon
SAT
SUN
MON
TUE
Snow at times,
1-3”
Chilly with snow
Very cold with
snow
40 27
36 19
0
0
0
39 27
33 14
21 -1
0
0
0
Baker City
30 39 30
Comfort Index™
La Grande
0
32 39 31
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
0
0
0
30 37 27
Comfort Index™
0
29
0
0
0
0
WED. EXTREMES
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Wednesday
Low Wednesday
High: 79°
Low: -30°
Wettest: 1.21”
42°
27°
43°
31°
43°
33°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Wednesday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
0.01
0.02
0.23
0.02
0.23
0.12
0.54
0.45
0.54
0.45
0.12
1.48
0.85
1.48
0.85
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
HAY INFORMATION SATURDAY
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
60%
W at 10 to 20 mph
2.8
0.05
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Thursday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
23% of capacity
43% of capacity
68% of capacity
21% of capacity
40% of capacity
101% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Wednesday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
1140 cfs
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
41 cfs
Burnt River near Unity
10 cfs
Umatilla River near Gibbon
153 cfs
Minam River at Minam
126 cfs
Powder River near Richland
74 cfs
Deaside
Crater Lake
Brookings
The heaviest snowstorm ever to affect
the Southeast coast of the United States
struck on Jan. 10, 1800. The port of
Charleston, S.C., received 10 inches.
SUN & MOON
FRI.
7:31 a.m.
4:29 p.m.
4:33 p.m.
7:33 a.m.
SAT.
7:30 a.m.
4:30 p.m.
5:44 p.m.
8:25 a.m.
MOON PHASES
Full
Jan 10
Last
Jan 17
New
Jan 24
Beaver Marsh
43/49
First
Feb 1
nee R d E
O
M
u,
k
o
d
u
S
,
s
g
n
Show Listi
,
Crosswords
rts
o
p
S
,
h
c
r
a
e
Word S
re...?
o
M
&
s
e
z
z
i
Qu
Burns
Jordan Valley
29/35
Paisley
30/38
Frenchglen
30/38
City
Astoria
Bend
Boise
Brookings
Burns
Coos Bay
Corvallis
Council
Elgin
Eugene
Hermiston
Hood River
Imnaha
John Day
Joseph
Kennewick
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
Hi/Lo/W
48/42/sh
40/28/sn
40/32/sn
48/40/r
39/26/sf
48/43/sh
48/41/sh
35/19/sn
39/31/sn
49/41/sh
52/42/sh
47/39/r
40/27/sn
39/29/sn
37/25/sn
51/41/sh
38/25/sn
37/21/sf
Hi/Lo/W
48/35/r
41/24/sn
36/32/sn
49/41/sh
37/23/sn
50/41/r
48/37/r
33/20/sn
38/26/sn
48/38/r
52/32/sh
46/33/sh
37/21/sh
40/23/sn
35/20/sn
52/31/sh
38/28/sh
36/26/sh
Diamond
Grand View
Arock
29/36
30/42
33/42
30/41
Klamath Falls
31/38
Lakeview
29/37
McDermitt
Shown is Saturday’s weather. Temperatures are Friday night’s lows and Saturday’s highs.
SUN.
Boise
34/40
Fields
Medford
SAT.
33/43
Silver Lake
31/36
39/44
43/48
Juntura
30/39
42/48
Brookings
Ontario
32/42
31/37
28/37
RECREATION FORECAST SATURDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
WEATHER HISTORY
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
44/46
31/36
29/33
Roseburg
Powers
Brothers
39/41
Coos Bay
Huntington
30/34
36/40
Oakridge
27/35
30/42
Seneca
Bend
Elkton
Grants Pass
OREGON
High: 51°
Low: 20°
Wettest: 0.66”
Florence
Council
30/39
36/39
36/41
Chiloquin
Hollywood, Fla.
Kabetogama, Minn.
Brookings, Ore.
28/34
John Day
36/44
Sisters
45/48
Comfort Index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels
very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable.
ALMANAC
Eugene
44/48
19 -2
29/39
Baker City
Redmond
43/48
47/48
Halfway
Granite
42/48
Newport
43/49
31 14
36/41
37/40
44/48
Corvallis
Enterprise
30/37
32/39
Monument
38/47
Idanha
Salem
7
37 22
Elgin
31/39
La Grande
36/41
Maupin
Occasional
snow, 1-3”
39/46
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
36/44
Hood River
39/46
TIllamook
2-4” of snow
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020
Walla Walla
41/51
Vancouver
42/46
44/46
TONIGHT
rescuers and a ski patrol
member holding his hand.
‘’My hands and feet were
extremely cold but I was
uninjured, breathing and
moving well,’’ Fuzak wrote.
“’I was more than ready to
get out of my encasement,
afraid that a 3rd slide would
bury me again.’’
The avalanche came after
the ski resort in the Idaho
Panhandle, received heavy
snow and resort crews used
explosives the morning of
the slide to try to reduce
avalanche threats on Ward-
ner Peak, where all of the
runs are rated as diffi cult.
Fuzak and three other
skiers who were not identi-
fi ed were rescued, but two
skiers died. They were
identifi ed by the Shoshone
County Sheriff’s Offi ce on
Thursday as Carl Hum-
phreys, 58, of Liberty Lake,
Washington, and Scott Par-
sons, 46, of Spokane Valley,
Washington.
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
SAT.
SUN.
Hi/Lo/W
44/35/sn
46/41/sh
37/29/sn
44/35/r
48/43/sh
46/39/c
42/32/sn
52/42/sh
46/35/sh
48/42/sh
46/41/sh
44/29/sn
49/40/sh
48/42/sh
37/28/sf
48/39/sn
36/28/sn
46/37/sn
Hi/Lo/W
44/32/sh
46/34/r
36/24/sn
44/37/sh
48/39/r
44/30/r
41/30/sn
53/34/sh
47/29/sh
48/38/r
48/39/r
45/27/sn
48/40/r
48/37/r
38/17/sn
49/34/sh
36/20/sn
46/30/sh
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice
Check out
our new
TV Magazine
ANTHONY LAKES
PHILLIPS LAKE
Windy
Snow, 1-3”
22
11
36
25
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Snow, 1-3”
Snow showers
31
23
39
22
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Snow, 2-4”
Snow, 1-3”
27
16
33
26
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Snow, 2-4”
Windy
37
25
45
34
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Snow, 1-3”
Snow, 1-3”
39
30
39
31
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REVERS
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