6B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
SATURDAY, MAY 8, 2021
Veteran feels Finally, the brothers hit a triple
she’s being
used by friend
HONOLULU — The year was 2005.
A 14-year-old Luke took a break from
watching his younger brother’s baseball
game in the Rogue Valley. Though his
brother, Jake, was quite talented at the
game, Luke didn’t enjoy watching sports.
Not really. Playing them was great, but
young Luke had suffered through the
fi rst game of the doubleheader, and let’s
face it: the level of competition in middle
school just isn’t that high.
Bored out of his mind and unwilling
to slowly bake in the early summer sun,
he went for a walk. At fi rst, passers-by
would see a gangly boy circling the edges
of the small sports park, counting ground
squirrels until he saw what appeared to
be a pond in the distance. Grasshoppers
were everywhere, and as he walked up to
the bank, they decided to commit mass
suicide, fl eeing his gargantuan presence
and dropping into the water below where
dozens of staging bluegills devoured
them.
Having grown up on trout, Luke
couldn’t remember catching a bluegill. He
had no fi shing tackle, but that didn’t stop
him from running through the fi elds like
a madman to chase grasshoppers into the
waiting mouths of shoreline bluegills.
The following week, he came prepared
with a rod and caught dozens of fi sh on
the very same suicidal grasshoppers
while Jake played baseball nearby. A
single fi sherman, playing the game.
DEAR
ABBY: While
DEAR ABBY
shopping
with a friend
recently, I
was put in an
awkward situation in regard to a store discount.
Having served in the military, I qualify for a dis-
count at that particular store. She was aware of that
discount, and while she was at the checkout lane, she
yelled at me, “Hey, you! What’s your phone number
for your military discount?”
We are both retired and living on one income,
although I am married and live on my husband’s
pension. She’s retired from a job in the medical
fi eld, owns her home and shows up conveniently at
friends’ homes for coffee and food.
I was so dumbfounded at her request for the
number that I gave it to her. I’m uncomfortable going
shopping with her now. I haven’t addressed it with
her, and I have tried to avoid any shopping trips
with her since that incident. It feels like she’s steal-
ing my valor since my husband and I served in the
military. Am I too easily offended?
— RETIRED IN ALASKA
DEAR RETIRED: I’m glad you mentioned valor
in your letter because it’s time for you to summon
up some more. Unless you want this person to con-
tinue taking advantage of you, set her straight. She
is not entitled to the discount, and you must learn
to refuse if and when she puts you in that position
again.
CAUGHT
OVGARD
LUKE OVGARD
“If Gabe’s wife, Rylee, decides to join
them on a ballpark fi shing trip some
day, it might just be a home run, but
a triple was what Luke had always
wanted and fi nally got.”
nings at McKay Reservoir, it was still a
baseball trip, and Luke fi shed more by
himself or with Jake more often than not,
a double.
2021
More than 15 years from the very
fi rst baseball park pond, Luke fi nally
had a chance to fi sh with both broth-
ers while the game was underway. Not
in Oregon, this time, but while on a
mini vacation for a friend’s wedding in
Hawaii.
On the University of Hawaii campus,
as baseball and spring football and
a track meet harmonized to form an
athletic din of background noise, the
Ovgard brothers caught fi sh after fi sh
in the small drainage pond on campus.
Bluegills and pikeminnows weren’t
present, but there was no shortage of
invasive species: red devil cichlids, jag-
uar guapote, banded jewel cichlids and
even one smallmouth bass obliged the
Ovgard bros that day, creating the fi rst
triple he’d ever had.
If Gabe’s wife, Rylee, decides to join
them on a ballpark fi shing trip some
day, it might just be a home run, but
a triple was what Luke had always
wanted and fi nally got.
2008
Fast-forward a couple years. Luke was
now a 17-year-old high school graduate,
just a few weeks post-ceremony. This
time, his younger brother, Gabe, had a
baseball tournament in Pendleton. The
stakes for this tournament were a trip
to the Little League World Series, and
though it was more competitive than the
games years before, it was still youth
baseball.
Luke watched a few games, but inevi-
tably found the days-long tournament a
little stale and decided to go for a walk,
this time fi nding his way to a slow-mov-
ing oxbow in the Umatilla River where
he caught northern pikeminnows left and
right.
Though Gabe joined him in the eve-
DEAR ABBY: My ex-husband always had a dif-
fi cult relationship with his family. I never under-
stood and would force him to call them on holidays,
birthdays and special occasions. We divorced after
he had an affair. It was ugly at the start, but we are
civil now.
Following the divorce, COVID and some bad deci-
sions on his part, he has lost everything. He’s now
homeless and lives in his car or at motels. The other
day he came to me desperate. I took him out of the
cold for a while, fed him and dropped him off at a
friend’s. I then reached out to his family to tell them
about how bad he is doing. I didn’t even get to tell
them before they cut me off saying they have washed
their hands of him because of his bad decisions.
My ex isn’t perfect, but although he never did any-
thing to his family like he did to me, they are punish-
ing him for that. Should I reach out to them again
and tell them he needs them now more than ever, or
should I just let it go like he told me to years ago?
Luke Ovgard/Contributed Photo
SAFETY
As my daughter would say,
Continued from Page 1B
“Dad, you’ve never been known
The .25-caliber Gauntlet
as Captain Safety,” but despite
has an MSRP of $329.99 and
the voices of the haters, I
has worked great for me. The
want to throw out one word of
Marauder has an MSRP of
caution. I don’t want to make
Tom Claycomb/Contributed Photo
$539.99. But if you want to
you paranoid but I think that
burn money you can blow up to
it would be prudent to take a
nearly $3,000. I just can’t afford days everyone told you that you
jug of water and periodically
had to buy air gun-compatible PELLETS
that, plus, I get super groups
wash your hands since you’ll
scopes, that due to the unique
As covered in the last air gun be handling lead pellets. And
out of the above two PCP’s so
article, if you want tight groups for sure wash before you eat
recoil of an air gun that they
I don’t know what more those
would break a regular scope. I you have to use good pellets.
expensive ones could bring to
or suck your thumb if you’re
JSB is the best. If you’re plink- so inclined to thumb sucking. I
think this applies to BB’s but
the party?
not the other two models. But
ing and fl inging out hundreds don’t have any data to support
SCOPES
still, to be safe check before you of pellets per day, I’ve had good this paragraph but I think that
I didn’t touch on scopes in the buy a scope for your air gun.
luck with Crosman and Sig
it only stands to reason to do
other three articles. In the old
A lot of the cheaper air guns Sauer pellets.
this.
DEAR EX: If you think it will soften their hearts,
contact them once more and tell them that you have
forgiven him for the hurt he caused you and suggest
they stop punishing him for it. However, it’s entirely
possible that some of your ex’s other bad decisions
may have affected his relatives. If that’s the case,
let the matter drop. Remember, there’s a difference
between being softhearted and softheaded, and he
must solve his own problems without you being
dragged back in.
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
come with cheap scopes. So you
may want to upgrade your air
gun scope. Since we’ll be shoot-
ing small game with a small
kill zone, you’ll want at the very
least a 3-9 but a 4-16 is better.
I’ve found Riton Optics scopes
to be economical and yet they
have a crisp view.
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
46/59
Kennewick
48/63
St. Helens
48/65
48/66
49/68
49/65
45/65
Condon
Baker City
34 58 34
Comfort Index™
La Grande
5
9
8
WED
9
10
9
44/65
64 36
72 40
79 45
10
10
8
76 45
9
10
8
1
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Thursday
Low Thursday
High: 108°
Low: 18°
Wettest: 1.52”
83°
33°
86°
42°
85°
37°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Thursday
Trace
Month to date
0.03
Normal month to date 0.25
Year to date
1.69
Normal year to date
3.30
Trace
0.02
0.37
5.86
6.18
0.00
0.03
0.43
13.74
10.12
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
HAY INFORMATION SUNDAY
35%
NW at 7 to 14 mph
6.6
0.11
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Friday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
Florence
Elkton
22% of capacity
99% of capacity
55% of capacity
98% of capacity
63% of capacity
101% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Thursday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
7390 cfs
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
53 cfs
Burnt River near Unity
152 cfs
Umatilla River near Gibbon
730 cfs
Minam River at Minam
1490 cfs
Powder River near Richland
64 cfs
Death Valley, Calif.
Walden, Colo.
Cape Canaveral, Fla.
OREGON
High: 91°
Low: 32°
Wettest: 0.14”
Ontario
Lakeview
Brookings
WEATHER HISTORY
A rare late-season snowstorm on this date
in 1803 ruined many of Philadelphia’s
shade trees. Snow accumulated from In-
diana to New England during the storm’s
two-day trek.
SUN & MOON
SAT.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
5:31 a.m.
8:07 p.m.
4:35 a.m.
5:11 p.m.
SUN.
5:30 a.m.
8:09 p.m.
4:54 a.m.
6:14 p.m.
MOON PHASES
New
First
Full
May 11 May 19 May 26
Last
Jun 2
31/57
Roseburg
45/65
34/52
Beaver Marsh
44/59
Powers
Brothers
42/60
Coos Bay
46/70
Burns
Jordan Valley
34/54
Paisley
35/59
Frenchglen
37/55
Klamath Falls
34/61
Hi/Lo/W
59/46/sh
60/31/c
63/39/c
65/47/s
57/29/c
59/43/pc
65/41/c
59/34/t
59/35/t
65/43/c
73/43/c
66/46/pc
58/35/t
54/35/c
53/34/t
74/42/c
61/31/s
59/30/pc
Hi/Lo/W
59/43/c
66/39/s
66/42/pc
67/50/s
65/32/pc
60/42/pc
70/42/pc
65/36/pc
64/36/pc
69/43/pc
76/44/s
74/45/pc
64/37/pc
63/34/pc
58/37/pc
77/43/s
67/34/s
65/27/s
Grand View
Arock
42/66
39/61
Lakeview
34/59
McDermitt
36/56
RECREATION FORECAST SUNDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
City
Astoria
Bend
Boise
Brookings
Burns
Coos Bay
Corvallis
Council
Elgin
Eugene
Hermiston
Hood River
Imnaha
John Day
Joseph
Kennewick
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
Diamond
36/54
39/58
Shown is Sunday’s weather. Temperatures are Saturday night’s lows and Sunday’s highs.
MON.
Boise
39/63
Fields
45/70
SUN.
40/61
Silver Lake
33/60
Medford
Brookings
Juntura
33/57
46/72
47/65
Ontario
43/68
34/57
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Huntington
34/51
38/60
Oakridge
33/59
45/64
Seneca
Bend
THURSDAY EXTREMES
ALMANAC
39/54
38/62
Council
34/58
John Day
37/60
Sisters
46/66
69 43
33/60
Baker City
Redmond
47/59
Halfway
Granite
34/47
42/56
47/64
45/56
Eugene
59 35
41/58
43/65
Newport
77 40
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.
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
Corvallis
71 36
4
32 55 34
Comfort Index™
TUE
Enterprise
32/55
39/59
Monument
43/65
Idanha
Salem
64 31
2
39 59 35
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
MON
Times of clouds Partly sunny and Partly sunny and
and sun
warmer
pleasant
Elgin
37/59
La Grande
40/58
Maupin
SUN
43/64
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
43/65
Hood River
44/67
TIllamook
Cloudy, a stray
t-shower
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Walla Walla
43/74
Vancouver
47/66
47/60
Rather cloudy
The author fi shed the Umatilla River
during his brother Gabe’s (pictured)
Little League World Series qualifying
tournament in Pendleton. A dozen
years later, they fi shed a pond behind
a baseball fi eld together and caught
several red devil cichlids like this.
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AIR GUNS
— EX WITH A HEART
TONIGHT
Luke Ovgard/Contributed Photo
The fi rst time the author fi shed a
baseball park pond was during his
brother Jake’s (pictured) game more
than 15 years ago. Now, the author
has come full-circle and fi shed with
Jake at a baseball pond. They caught
red devil cichlids in the pond at the
University of Hawaii.
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
SUN.
MON.
ANTHONY LAKES
PHILLIPS LAKE
Hi/Lo/W
65/42/t
63/43/pc
59/35/t
70/42/s
56/44/c
62/40/c
68/43/pc
72/41/c
67/41/c
65/46/c
65/43/pc
60/30/pc
70/43/pc
64/46/c
62/43/c
68/46/pc
57/31/c
64/43/sh
Hi/Lo/W
71/45/pc
69/41/c
64/34/pc
77/44/s
56/42/pc
67/39/c
71/43/s
76/43/s
71/42/s
71/48/pc
67/43/s
69/34/s
72/44/pc
71/45/pc
66/42/pc
76/48/s
62/32/pc
68/46/pc
Snow showers; cold
Cloudy
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice
30
22
50
31
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
A stray t-shower
Thundershowers
45
33
62
36
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Thundershowers
Cloudy and cool
38
25
54
31
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Thundershowers
Cloudy
53
34
65
39
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Breezy in the p.m.
A stray t-shower
58
34
59
35