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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2021)
COFFEE BREAK 8B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD TuESDAY, MAY 18, 2021 Rescued cat’s unhealthy diet leads to tension between neighbors DEAR ABBY: I am a lover of and rescuer of cats (and dogs). I rescued a beautiful and loving cat with horrible wounds on his neck. I got him neutered, his wounds cleaned and sewn up, and became attached to him. I had asked my elderly neighbor if she wanted him. She said she’d think about it. She visited him at my house as his wounds healed, and a few months later she took the cat. When I visited her a few months after that, I saw she was feeding him so many treats that he was (I’m not exaggerating) mor- bidly obese. When I told her so, she got insulted. She didn’t believe me so she took the cat for a checkup at the local veterinarian. The vet told her the same thing in no uncertain terms, and to feed the cat no treats and a certain low-fat dry cat food. With my DEAR help she ordered the ABBY food and I measured it into bags to make it easier for her, as she gets a bit confused. I weigh the cat every Monday and he has lost a bit of weight already. Slowly is the best way. But she’s not pleasant to work with and is fighting me all the way. I’m a patient person and do my best, but sometimes it’s Or should I just consider him “dead”? — SOMEONE’S MISSING IN MASSACHUSETTS DEAR SOMEONE’S MISSING: I seriously doubt that “confronting” your ex-hus- band will work out well. You are a loving, enthusiastic parent and you do not need your ex’s negative attitude putting a damper on your happiness. Continue hosting these cele- bratory events, and extend invites to your ex if you wish. However, because of his racism, do not expect him to show up. That’s a good thing, all things considered. Continue to dwell on the pos- itive, and you and your children will all be happier. buying him out because two of our kids were still living at home. Fast-forward to now: We are expecting our third grandkid. Since the divorce, he doesn’t want to co-parent with me. He keeps saying we are no longer a family. The holidays and main events are now celebrated separately. I am increasingly sad about this. He refuses to be civil with me. He’s a racist, and I happen to have a boyfriend of a different race living with me now. His attitude is affecting our children, especially the one still living with me. I want to be able to share the joy of our new grand- kids and the successes of our chil- dren, and the dilemmas as well, but I can’t. Should I confront him? hard not to lose my temper. Any suggestions? — CARES ABOUT FUR BABIES DEAR CARES: Unfortu- nately, we don’t always get to know people until we see them in action, as you are now doing with this neighbor. For that cat’s sake, hang onto your temper and con- tinue to help her and her fur baby. If she’s becoming increasingly confused, it is important that someone not only keep an eye on the feline in that household, but also her — to ensure that she is able to take care of herself. DEAR ABBY: My husband and I divorced five years ago. We have four grown children. He wanted to sell the house, but I ended up News of the Weird Artist finishes year of pandemic ‘daily doodles’ WESTMORELAND, N.H. — Much like the round clock faces, gears and planets that often pop- ulate his artwork, Robert Seaman has come full circle. Seaman, 88, has been drawing since he was a boy, and at age 60, left a real estate career to pursue his hobby professionally. But it took the coronavirus pandemic to fully return him to his passion. “As a kid, I kept lurching between being a loner and being an extrovert,” he said. “But in my introvert phase, I would love to go up to my room where I had a drawing table kind of desk and I’d spend hours up there drawing pictures. That’s what I’m doing now.” May 11 marked one year since Seaman started churning out “daily doodles” from his small, one-room apartment at the Maplewood Assisted Living facility in Westmoreland, New Hampshire. He spends about six hours a day working on his intricate, fanciful illustrations, starting with pencil sketches and finishing with ink, colored pencil and watercolor. “After a long life, I’m back doing what I did when I was 11 years old,” he said. “And it’s great, I love it. I’m so lucky Charles Krupa/Associated Press Artist Robert Seaman holds the 365th daily doodle sketch in his room at an assisted living facility Monday, May 10, 2021, in Westmoreland, New.Hampshire. Seaman, who moved into the facility weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown his outside world in 2020, recently completed his 365th daily sketch, or what he calls his “COVID Doodles,” since being isolated due to the virus outbreak. that I can do this.” Seaman moved in to Maple- wood just two weeks before the pandemic restrictions cut resi- dents off from the outside world. For many months, they couldn’t leave their rooms. It was only last week that they were allowed to interact in hallways and other common areas without masks. “The first thought I had was to just do some kind of dark stuff that reflected the nature of the weather | Go to AccuWeather.com confinement that we were expe- riencing and the difficulties that were created by this pandemic,” he said. “Then it just started to grow, and I thought it would be interesting to do one a day.” He started sending the doodles to his daughter, Robin Hayes, and other friends and family. Hayes then shared them on Face- book, and as interest grew, began offering the originals and prints for sale on Etsy.com, with half AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION Astoria Longview 41/55 Kennewick 41/58 St. Helens 45/61 42/61 Condon 45/66 44/61 Plenty of clouds A shower in the afternoon Baker City 36 56 31 Comfort Index™ La Grande 8 7 Overcast, Cloudy with rain showers around possible 58 33 Eugene 0 0 2 39/60 55 38 53 34 58 38 0 0 5 53 37 0 0 3 1 TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin NATION (for the 48 contiguous states) High: 99° Low: 24° Wettest: 5.11” 81° 38° 83° 40° 88° 37° PRECIPITATION (inches) Sunday Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Normal year to date Florence 0.00 0.03 0.70 1.69 3.75 0.00 0.03 1.01 5.87 6.82 0.00 0.05 1.13 13.76 10.82 AGRICULTURAL INFO. HAY INFORMATION WEDNESDAY Lowest relative humidity Afternoon wind Hours of sunshine Evapotranspiration 35% NW at 7 to 14 mph 7.1 0.12 RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Monday) Phillips Reservoir Unity Reservoir Owyhee Reservoir McKay Reservoir Wallowa Lake Thief Valley Reservoir 18% of capacity 95% of capacity 52% of capacity 98% of capacity 61% of capacity 94% of capacity STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Sunday) Grande Ronde at Troy 6700 cfs Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder 117 cfs Burnt River near Unity 154 cfs Umatilla River near Gibbon 413 cfs Minam River at Minam 1920 cfs Powder River near Richland 42 cfs Castolon, Texas Walden, Colo. Dallas, Texas OREGON High: 91° Low: 32° Wettest: Trace Hermiston Meacham Brookings WEATHER HISTORY Mount Saint Helens erupted on May 18, 1980. The smoke plume climbed 16 miles into the atmosphere. The resulting clouds were tracked to the Atlantic coast three days later, then around the world in 19 days. SUN & MOON TUE. Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset WED. 5:19 a.m. 5:18 a.m. 8:19 p.m. 8:20 p.m. 10:53 a.m. 12:04 p.m. 1:40 a.m. 2:12 a.m. MOON PHASES First Full Last May 19 May 26 Jun 2 New Jun 10 32/57 37/53 Powers 42/57 41/61 Silver Lake Jordan Valley 37/55 Frenchglen Paisley 35/50 30/50 38/56 Diamond Klamath Falls 42/63 Lakeview 33/54 34/53 McDermitt 37/61 RECREATION FORECAST WEDNESDAY REGIONAL CITIES THU. City Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W Astoria 55/44/c 58/45/c Bend 53/29/c 55/35/sh Boise 59/42/pc 62/40/c Brookings 56/43/c 58/44/pc Burns 56/30/c 55/34/sh Coos Bay 54/42/c 57/46/sh Corvallis 59/37/c 62/40/sh Council 55/35/pc 56/39/sh Elgin 56/33/c 55/38/sh Eugene 60/37/c 62/40/sh Hermiston 68/38/c 69/45/sh Hood River 61/44/c 66/51/sh Imnaha 54/36/c 51/41/sh John Day 53/34/c 54/39/sh Joseph 47/33/c 47/34/sh Kennewick 69/40/c 69/44/sh Klamath Falls 54/31/c 51/30/sh Lakeview 53/31/c 48/31/sh 46/63 40/55 Fields Shown is Wednesday’s weather. Temperatures are Tuesday night’s lows and Wednesday’s highs. WED. Grand View Arock 36/55 39/60 Medford Brookings Boise 44/59 41/67 42/56 41/62 32/54 Chiloquin Grants Pass Juntura 35/56 30/50 Beaver Marsh Ontario 49/63 Burns Brothers 27/50 Roseburg Huntington 33/51 37/56 Coos Bay 43/55 48/58 Seneca 35/53 Oakridge Council 36/56 John Day Bend Elkton SUNDAY EXTREMES High Sunday Low Sunday 33/44 33/55 41/54 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 Sisters 41/56 47 32 38/56 Baker City Redmond 41/52 42/54 Halfway Granite 39/59 Newport 54 36 49 35 38/59 35/52 41/60 Corvallis Enterprise 33/48 39/56 Monument 42/62 Idanha Salem SAT 53 37 5 33 48 33 Comfort Index™ A couple of showers 2 39 56 33 Comfort Index™ Enterprise 8 FRI Elgin 36/56 La Grande 35/54 Maupin THU 42/62 Pendleton The Dalles Portland Newberg 38/59 Lewiston 45/62 Hood River 41/61 41/55 WED Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021 Walla Walla 42/69 Vancouver 40/60 TIllamook TONIGHT Deerfield, bought Doodles 13, 271 and 274 after hearing about Seaman on the radio and getting added to his daily email list. Sandra Fox, who once stared at a painting in a museum so long that a guard teased her about “casing the joint,” said she loves how much there is to see in Sea- man’s drawings. “They are what they are to me, I have the same feelings, but I see more every time,” she said. “I could look at them for half an hour and see many, many things. I’ll catch another color or some- thing in a corner I never even noticed before.” Doodle No. 365, titled “Pot- pourri” includes the Earth looming behind a jumble of objects that include the aforemen- tioned cat, a wind-up bird Seaman keeps on his desk, a horse and a man wearing an aviator cap and googles. It’s framed by a series of shapes that evoke calligraphy but aren’t actual letters. Though he accomplished his goal of a year of daily doodles, Seaman said he has no plans to stop. “It’s selfish. It keeps me occu- pied, and I love doing it, but it also does help some other people, which is kind of nice,” he said. “Maybe I’ll get so shaky I can’t do anything, but as long as I can, I will.” — Associated Press the proceeds going to charities, including a COVID-19 relief fund, a homeless shelter and an organization that helps refugees. As the days passed, Seaman’s art got a bit brighter in both theme and appearance. Some pieces showcase his fas- cination with science fiction, while others portray whimsical animals or sly humor — No. 131, “Portraits of a Shy Family,” depicts framed paintings of the backs of heads. Robots carrying purple flags march across the page. Blackbirds burst from a pie. A squiggly-lined brain is sand- wiched between two burger buns. A much-loved cat, Piper, shows up in all kinds of scenes. Seaman, who has been fully vaccinated since January, says he’ll “probably kick the bucket” before he runs out of ideas. “I might be watching some- thing on television, and someone will have a picture on the wall that will give me an idea. Or things just pop into my head. When I go to sleep at night, for a few minutes I try to think of some new ideas,” he said. “When I get stuck, I’ll just start drawing an object and it’s like word asso- ciation. I’ll draw a hand, and all of a sudden that suggests some- thing else, so it just grows from there.” Craig and Sandra Fox, of City Lewiston Longview Meacham Medford Newport Olympia Ontario Pasco Pendleton Portland Powers Redmond Roseburg Salem Spokane The Dalles Ukiah Walla Walla WED. THU. Hi/Lo/W 62/44/c 58/40/c 56/32/c 63/42/c 52/42/c 59/36/sh 63/44/pc 69/39/c 61/37/c 61/43/c 57/40/c 57/32/c 61/40/c 60/40/c 59/38/c 66/46/pc 53/30/c 62/41/c Hi/Lo/W 62/44/sh 62/44/pc 55/38/sh 64/43/c 53/44/sh 65/40/pc 66/44/sh 69/45/sh 62/41/sh 65/48/sh 57/45/pc 56/37/sh 62/46/sh 64/45/sh 56/42/sh 68/51/sh 53/33/sh 62/44/sh 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 A snow shower A shower 28 16 47 30 MT. EMILY REC. BROWNLEE RES. A shower A shower 40 28 58 35 EAGLE CAP WILD. EMIGRANT ST. PARK Cloudy and colder A shower 34 23 48 26 WALLOWA LAKE MCKAY RESERVOIR A shower A shower 47 33 60 36 THIEF VALLEY RES. RED BRIDGE ST. PARK A shower A shower 56 31 56 33 Casual Sofa with Accent Pillows only $ 749 La-Z-Boy Recliner $ 499 • Free Delivery • In-Store Credit Dresser, Mirror, Queen Bed 3 Pc. $ 999 Bedroom only HOURS:Mon. - Fri. 9:30 am-6:30 pm Sat. 9:30 am-5:30 pm Sun. 12 noon-4 pm (541) 963-4144 • 888-449-2704 • 70 Store Buying Power • Decorating Assistance 1520 ADAMS AVENUE La GRANDE, OREGON 97850
