8B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
THuRSDAY, MARCH 4, 2021
COFFEE BREAK
Man’s bisexual past gnaws at woman’s sense of trust
DEAR ABBY: I am a
49-year-old woman who has
been in a romantic relationship
with a good, caring man for two
years. We live together, and he
shows me all the time how much
he loves me. We
have amazing chem-
istry and are very
affectionate. We
enjoy spending time
together, especially
outdoors.
When we first started dating,
he told me he was bisexual and
had had relationships with men.
He insists I am his true love and
he is with only me now. He has
never shown signs of straying,
but sometimes I get insecure and
wonder if I should take him at
his word that he only wants me.
Should I trust him?
— WANTS TO BE SURE IN
RHODE ISLAND
DEAR WANTS: This man has
been upfront with you. Because
someone finds
members of both
genders attrac-
DEAR
tive does not mean
the person is inca-
ABBY
pable of monogamy.
During the last two
years, he has given you no reason
to believe he is untrustworthy, so
take steps to deal with your inse-
curity and take him at his word.
DEAR ABBY: My son and
daughter-in-law — the parents
of three minor children — were
divorced in 2019. Prior to their
blameless. Your son may not like
the situation, but it is time for
him to grow up and face reality.
You are the only grandmother
that child has ever known, so
remain calm, assert your right
to self-determination and refuse
to allow yourself to be bullied or
intimidated.
DEAR ABBY: Unfortunately, I
am not in the same income bracket
as my family and some of my
friends. Also, I married a guy who
doesn’t like to socialize because
he’s a recovering alcoholic, and
he also has hearing problems.
Family and friends rarely ask us
to join them when they go out, but
they never fail to call and tell me
all about the great time they had
and where they plan to go next.
divorce, the ex-DIL got pregnant
by another man. She has since
had a little girl. My dilemma is,
do I include the new little girl
when they come to visit Grandma?
She is still my grandchildren’s
half-sister. As they get older and
come to visit me, I would feel bad
leaving her out of events.
My son is livid that I would
even consider including her. Her
other grandparents refuse to have
anything to do with her. How do I
deal with this?
— DILEMMA IN THE MIDWEST
DEAR DILEMMA: You have
a loving heart. I assume all the
children live together with their
mother. To exclude their half-
sister would be logistically dif-
ficult and cruel to a child who is
It hurts, and I resent them for it. I
want to be happy for them and not
feel the way I do. Help!
— DIFFERENT IN NEW YORK
DEAR DIFFERENT: Your hus-
band may have hearing problems,
but your relatives appear to be tone
deaf in the sensitivity department.
What they are doing is cruel.
Rather than compare your
life to that of friends and rela-
tives who have more freedom to
socialize than you and your hus-
band do, it would be more con-
structive to figure out what you
CAN do. Socialize either with
others or by yourselves in places
that don’t serve alcohol and aren’t
overly noisy. Ask your relatives to
join you there — and put the ball
in their court.
News of the Weird
Southern freeze
pummeled bats, birds,
other wildlife
DALLAS — As many people
in the southern U.S. hosted neigh-
bors who had no heat or water
during the vicious February storm
and deep freeze, Kate Rugroden
provided a refuge for shell-
shocked bats.
Starving and disoriented, the
winged mammals tumbled to the
snow-coated ground as tempera-
tures plunged to levels rarely seen
in the region.
“They burned through their
energy reserves as they tried to
wake up and get away from the
cold and ice,” said Rugroden, of
Arlington, Texas, one of numerous
rehabilitation specialists nursing
stranded bats plucked up by sym-
pathetic people. “And there aren’t
any insects out there for them to
eat yet.”
Bats are among numerous
wildlife believed to have taken
a beating in the South, a region
unaccustomed to such a severe
and prolonged cold snap. Many
species migrate there for winter
precisely because of its normally
mild weather.
It might take weeks or months to
determine the extent of the harm,
but anecdotal evidence is already
turning up — including dead
robins on yards and sidewalks.
Alligators in Oklahoma’s Red
Slough Wildlife Management Area
were photographed with snouts
protruding from frozen waterways
— a survival maneuver enabling
them to breathe while their bodies
go dormant to conserve energy.
Fish kills were feared in
Arkansas and Louisiana. The
Texas Parks and Wildlife Depart-
ment said it expected casualties
among exotic deer and antelope.
Across the Gulf of Mexico coast
as far east as Florida, naturalists
worried about monarch butterflies
and the milkweed plants essential
to their survival as they prepare to
Steve Gonzales/Houston Chronicle via AP
Diana Foss, Texas Parks and Wildlife urban wildlife biologist, attempts to find surviving Mexican Free-tailed
bats Feb. 22, 2021, in a pile of dead bats at Waugh Drive in Buffalo Bayou Park, Houston, in the wake of the
severe winter storm. Foss said the winter bat colony is about 100,000 and during the summer the colony has
about 300,000 bats. She said they were able to find about 20 bats that fell from the bridge that still were alive.
migrate northward.
“Animals can respond to events
like this by moving elsewhere,
but if it’s beyond your flight range
or your walking range you have
to hunker down,” said Perry Bar-
boza, a wildlife biologist at Texas
A&M University. “Some ani-
mals like small birds can do it
just a night or two. The duration
becomes the killer.”
Sea turtles stunned by frigid
Gulf coastal waters still were being
cared for at facilities last week.
More than 10,600 had been found
and officials were tabulating how
many died, said Donna Shaver,
Texas coordinator for the Sea Turtle
Stranding and Salvage Network.
Sea Turtle Inc. took in so many
that it used the South Padre Island
Convention Center to accom-
modate the overflow, executive
director Wendy Knight said.
“Our hospital is now completely
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
filled to the gills,” Knight said.
Fish kills along the Texas coast
were expected for recreational
favorites such as spotted sea trout
and red drum. In Louisiana, offi-
cials said it could take a week for
dead fish to wash ashore.
The Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission warned anglers to
expect die-offs of threadfin shad,
a primary food source for lake
species such as bass, walleye and
crappie.
While extreme weather is par-
ticularly dangerous for imper-
iled species, the whooping crane
— listed by the federal govern-
ment as endangered — appears to
have weathered the storm, said Joe
Saenz, manager of the Aransas
National Wildlife Refuge in Texas.
About 500 of the majestic birds
spend winters at the refuge before
returning to Canadian nesting
grounds. During the cold spell,
some were spotted feasting on dead
fish floating on the Gulf waters.
Biologists are concerned about
monarch butterflies, which the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in
December designated as a candi-
date for endangered or threatened
status because of a sharp decline
in recent decades.
The biggest monarch population
winters in Mexican mountains and
begins its northward trek in March.
Had the cold spell happened a few
weeks later, the orange-and-black
butterflies could have been devas-
tated, said Ray Moranz, an Okla-
homa-based scientist.
They still might not escape
unscathed. Some typically spend
winters along the Gulf coast,
where their odds during the deep
freeze were poor, said Moranz,
of the Xerces Society for Inverte-
brate Conservation.
Another potential danger is to
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
46/49
Kennewick
45/52
St. Helens
45/51
40/55
38/59
45/52
44/50
Condon
Mainly clear
Partly sunny
Baker City
La Grande
7
40 53 33
Comfort Index™
8
50 30
48 26
Eugene
3
3
44/50
45 30
49 34
46 30
0
3
2
45 33
40 30
0
8
2
5
ALMANAC
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High: 90°
Low: -15°
Wettest: 2.14”
52°
23°
49°
32°
51°
29°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
0.00
0.00
0.05
0.95
1.43
0.00
0.00
0.09
5.03
2.86
0.00
0.00
0.17
11.93
5.67
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
HAY INFORMATION FRIDAY
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
40%
SSE at 8 to 16 mph
9.4
0.12
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Wednesday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
Powers
48/52
10% of capacity
52% of capacity
51% of capacity
55% of capacity
42% of capacity
992% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Tuesday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
2170 cfs
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
59 cfs
Burnt River near Unity
38 cfs
Umatilla River near Gibbon
413 cfs
Minam River at Minam
171 cfs
Powder River near Richland
87 cfs
Immokalee, Fla.
Crested Butte, Colo.
Albany, Ga.
OREGON
High: 67°
Low: 17°
Wettest: Trace
Medford
Klamath Falls
North Bend
An area from New York to Vermont suf-
fered one of its worst ice storms on record
on March 4, 1991. Ice one inch thick ac-
cumulated between Buffalo and Rochester,
snapping power lines and tree limbs.
SUN & MOON
THU.
FRI.
6:25 a.m. 6:23 a.m.
5:44 p.m. 5:45 p.m.
none 12:46 a.m.
9:25 a.m. 10:01 a.m.
MOON PHASES
Last
Mar 5
New
Mar 13
First
Mar 21
Full
Mar 28
Jordan Valley
33/56
Paisley
36/58
38/51
Frenchglen
34/59
42/55
Brookings
43/60
City
Astoria
Bend
Boise
Brookings
Burns
Coos Bay
Corvallis
Council
Elgin
Eugene
Hermiston
Hood River
Imnaha
John Day
Joseph
Kennewick
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
SAT.
Hi/Lo/W
49/38/r
57/32/r
62/42/s
48/38/r
60/30/pc
48/40/r
51/38/r
51/30/s
51/35/s
50/40/r
74/43/pc
55/38/r
56/33/s
57/33/pc
51/34/s
73/43/pc
55/30/pc
54/29/pc
Hi/Lo/W
50/41/pc
51/29/pc
53/33/pc
49/39/pc
46/23/pc
50/38/pc
52/37/pc
45/29/c
45/30/r
54/39/pc
59/38/pc
55/36/c
45/27/r
43/27/sn
40/28/sn
59/37/pc
44/24/pc
44/21/sn
Grand View
Arock
32/66
35/67
27/60
Klamath Falls
35/55
Lakeview
30/54
McDermitt
Shown is Friday’s weather. Temperatures are Thursday night’s lows and Friday’s highs.
FRI.
Diamond
33/56
Fields
Medford
47/48
Boise
36/62
Silver Lake
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
28/58
33/54
27/56
RECREATION FORECAST FRIDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
WEATHER HISTORY
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
47/55
Juntura
28/60
32/56
Beaver Marsh
Ontario
32/60
Burns
Brothers
29/48
Roseburg
TUESDAY EXTREMES
High Tuesday
Low Tuesday
Tuesday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
Coos Bay
Huntington
32/52
44/57
Oakridge
24/51
33/55
Seneca
44/54
48/48
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.
38/57
Bend
Elkton
Council
33/54
John Day
41/62
Sisters
48/53
41 27
34/51
42/59
Florence
46/49
32/53
Baker City
Redmond
44/47
0
5
Halfway
Granite
42/51
Newport
48 28
5
43 51 36
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
5
Showers
possible
38/64
40/52
43/50
Corvallis
Enterprise
40/53
43/51
Monument
41/62
Idanha
Salem
MON
Rain and drizzle Cloudy to partly
sunny
33 54 33
Comfort Index™
SUN
Elgin
38/51
La Grande
41/62
Maupin
SAT
47/65
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
38/63
Hood River
53/71
TIllamook
FRI
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Walla Walla
40/73
Vancouver
43/51
46/49
TONIGHT
milkweed, which provides spots
for female monarchs to lay eggs
and food for their larvae. If the
plants’ growth across the South
is stunted, more young would not
survive.
That situation underscores
a hazard for wildlife across the
region: Even those that made it
through the freeze might see dam-
aged habitat and less food.
In South Texas, bur clover, a
winter weed crucial for deer in
spring, was showing freeze burn.
Long-term, the biggest con-
cerns are for birds and bats, both
of which had absorbed heavy
blows even before the storm.
Breeding bird populations
in the U.S. and Canada have
plummeted nearly 30 percent in
the past 50 years — primarily
because of habitat loss. Spring
population counts will offer the
first indication of how many suc-
cumbed to the cold, said Barboza
of Texas A&M.
Migratory birds don’t bother
fattening up for winter because
food in the South is plentiful, he
said. During the storm, many
probably burned through their
meager energy reserves and died
of exhaustion. About 20 dead
brown pelicans were found on
Texas’ Chester Island.
Frozen songbirds were spotted
on streets in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
where temperatures plunged to
minus-13 degrees during the storm.
Bats have their own chal-
lenges, including a fungal dis-
ease called white-nose syndrome
that has killed millions. To those
struggling to save them, every bat
is precious. They eat huge num-
bers of insects that consume farm
crops and carry diseases.
“We’re seeing a large popu-
lation hit,” including migratory
bats just arriving from Mexico,
said Rugroden, the rehabilitation
specialist. A well-known colony
living in a Houston bridge appears
to have taken big losses.
— Associated Press
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
FRI.
SAT.
Hi/Lo/W
63/41/pc
52/41/r
51/35/s
60/37/r
47/40/r
50/38/r
60/39/s
68/41/pc
71/41/pc
52/41/r
52/37/r
62/32/pc
55/40/r
50/40/r
58/38/pc
59/40/r
57/32/pc
65/42/pc
Hi/Lo/W
52/37/r
51/39/pc
45/28/r
53/34/pc
49/41/pc
50/37/pc
54/30/pc
59/35/pc
54/37/pc
53/40/pc
50/37/pc
50/27/pc
55/39/pc
51/39/pc
48/32/c
56/35/c
46/29/pc
52/38/r
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice
ANTHONY LAKES
PHILLIPS LAKE
Breezy
Sun and clouds
36
19
51
31
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Mostly sunny
Partly sunny
44
28
58
34
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Clouds and sun
Partly sunny
38
28
48
31
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Mostly sunny
Partly sunny
51
34
69
39
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Breezy
Partly sunny
54
33
51
36