COFFEE BREAK
B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2022
Elderly mom struggles to adjust to senior living
Although she looks like a frail old
lady, she’s in denial. She also has
bouts of crying and irrational con-
cerns and demands.
Abby, my mother has a roof
over her head she can aff ord, food,
access to health care and family
nearby. She’s just used to the
constant go-go-go of her former
country club life (which she never
paid for). I’m recently retired,
and her manipulations and the
eff ect she could have on my mar-
riage have me stressed-out. Please
advise. — STUCK IN THE
MUCK
DEAR STUCK: You are a
caring, if frustrated, son. You
mentioned that your mother
has spent her entire adult life
DEAR ABBY: My elderly
mother spent her entire adult
life spending her men’s money,
and now she has morphed into
an entitled, self-absorbed and
vapid woman. She blew through
her inheritance years ago with
no regard for future needs. I
have now moved her into senior
housing near me. She wants to
make friends, but the problem is
that she thinks she’s better than
everyone. She criticizes people’s
dress and perceived social status.
indulging herself and living the
“country club life.” Change at any
age can be diffi cult, but as people
age, they can become less resil-
ient, which is more of a challenge.
I can understand why your mother
might sometimes shed tears over
her changed status and even be in
denial about it. You didn’t men-
tion how much freedom she has
now, but she may have too much
idle time on her hands.
If she can’t fi nd things in
common with her neighbors, per-
haps she could make friends vol-
unteering for some of the charities
or activities in the community.
You would be doing her a favor to
suggest it. However, if her crying
spells increase, she might benefi t
from being screened for depres-
sion by a medical professional.
DEAR ABBY: I have been in
a mostly online relationship with
a man for years. He is a musician,
and we met after one of his shows.
We live a thousand miles apart
and, since COVID shut the world
down, we have seen each other
only twice. We love each other
very much and have developed our
relationship via texting constantly.
My problem is I’m not a
wealthy woman, but I have been
sending him more than $1,000 a
month all this time so he can post
his music on various websites. I’m
not entirely comfortable with this.
I have a strong aversion to being
used, which is what it sometimes
feels like. What do you think I
should do? — OUT OF TUNE
IN DELAWARE
DEAR OUT OF TUNE:
Listen to your intuition. Tell
the musician you love him very
much, but you will have to stop
sending him money because you
can no longer aff ord it. It happens
to be the truth. How he behaves
in the months that follow your
announcement will show if he is
on the level or if you have been
used.
█
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.
How the climate deal would help farmers aid the environment
culture and climate policy
specialist at the environ-
mental group Earthjustice.
Cover crops, for
example, are only used by a
fraction of farmers. If their
use were to triple — from
around 5% of cropland to
15% — it could remove the
equivalent of 14 megatons
of carbon dioxide per year,
roughly the total annual
emissions of New Hamp-
shire, according to Kevin
Karl, a fl ood food and cli-
mate researcher at Columbia
University.
“The adoption rate
is so low,” Karl said.
“There’s a lot of potential
improvement.”
Federal offi cials already
off er farmers help with a
variety of environmentally
focused issues including
irrigation and fertilizer use.
One program helps fund
conservation easements for
agricultural land.
Dan Sheafer works on
nitrogen research with the
Illinois Fertilizer and Chem-
ical Association and operates
a 20-acre farm. He plants
cover crops and keeps soil
By MICHAEL PHILLIS
The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS — The cli-
mate deal reached last week
by Senate Democrats could
reduce the amount of green-
house gases that Amer-
ican farmers produce by
expanding programs that
help accumulate carbon
in soil, fund climate-fo-
cused research and lower
the abundant methane emis-
sions that come from cows.
The bill includes more
than $20 billion to improve
the agriculture sector’s
impact on the environ-
ment, mostly by expanding
existing U.S. Department of
Agriculture programs that
help farmers change to better
practices. Farmers would be
paid to improve the health of
their soil, withstand extreme
weather and protect their
land if the bill is enacted.
The roughly $370 bil-
lion climate and energy
spending deal would bring
the country closer to cutting
greenhouse gas emissions in
half by 2030, according to
new analyses. That is some-
thing many scientists say
is important, and that Pres-
ident Joe Biden promised.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.
Va., a long-time holdout on
climate legislation, endorsed
measures that would benefi t
electric vehicles, renewable
energy and climate-friendly
farming. Agriculture is
responsible for 11% of the
country’s climate-warming
emissions.
The funding would
expand programs favored
by both environmental
groups and the agricultural
sector, said Ben Thomas,
who focuses on agricul-
ture at the Environmental
Defense Fund.
Charlie Riedel/The Associated Press, File
A cow grazes in a pasture as wind turbines rise in the distance, April 27, 2020, near Reading, Kan. The
climate deal reached by Senate Democrats could reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that American
farmers produce by expanding programs that help sequester carbon in soil, fund climate-focused
research and lower the abundant methane emissions that come from cows.
“They are voluntary, they
are incentive-based, they get
results in terms of imple-
menting conservation prac-
tices on working lands,”
said Thomas. “It’s great to
see.”
Thomas said historically,
the agricultural sector has
not aggressively tackled
its contribution to climate
change, but that hesitation
has shifted in recent years
and more money will accel-
erate progress. There’s a lot
of potential, he said.
“It is worth taking very,
very seriously,” Thomas said.
Cows belch an enormous
amount of methane and
agriculture is responsible
for more than one-third of
human-caused methane
emissions, according to the
U.S. Environmental Protec-
tion Agency. This is a way
that people’s diets — if they
are high in meat or dairy —
contribute to greenhouse
gas buildup. The bill directs
funds toward altering what
cows eat to reduce those
emissions.
On farms, soil can hold
or sequester carbon if it is
left undisturbed and covered
by a crop. Money from the
bill will expand programs
that help farmers turn their
soil less, implement cli-
mate-friendly crop rotation
practices and plant cover
crops that aren’t for harvest
but improve soil health.
“The historic funding
validates the fact that these
practices are important,” said
Ranjani Prabhakar, an agri-
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weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
53/73
Kennewick
54/81
St. Helens
56/85
56/87
58/91
57/85
54/85
Condon
FRI
SAT
SUN
MON
Partly cloudy
Partly sunny and
pleasant
Plenty of
sunshine
Sunny and hot
Mostly sunny
and very hot
85 43
94 50
97 54
Eugene
8
7
4
54/87
89 48
95 56
99 59
7
5
2
La Grande
50 85 46
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
9
8
8
47 82 46
Comfort Index™
7
92 59
99 59
7
5
2
9
ALMANAC
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Tuesday
Low Tuesday
High: 115°
Low: 41°
Wettest: 2.75”
91°
60°
93°
60°
93°
59°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Tuesday
0.00
Month to date
Trace
Normal month to date 0.03
Year to date
4.47
Normal year to date
6.02
0.00
0.00
0.04
8.98
10.70
Trace
Trace
0.04
17.76
15.27
HAY INFORMATION FRIDAY
20%
N at 6 to 12 mph
9.8
0.25
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Wednesday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
13% of capacity
63% of capacity
27% of capacity
84% of capacity
3% of capacity
55% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Tuesday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
Burnt River near Unity
Umatilla River near Gibbon
Minam River at Minam
Powder River near Richland
OREGON
Medford
Meacham
Lakeview
Powers
56/75
SUN & MOON
THU.
FRI.
5:40 a.m. 5:41 a.m.
8:16 p.m. 8:15 p.m.
12:59 p.m. 2:14 p.m.
11:29 p.m. 11:56 p.m.
MOON PHASES
797 cfs
95 cfs
143 cfs
53 cfs
197 cfs
26 cfs
First
Aug 5
Full
Aug 11
Last
Aug 18
Grants Pass
New
Aug 27
Jordan Valley
57/87
Paisley
57/89
56/86
Frenchglen
60/90
62/90
65/96
55/67
67/92
Klamath Falls
57/89
Lakeview
55/91
McDermitt
62/87
RECREATION FORECAST FRIDAY
SAT.
Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W
73/55/s 80/56/s
85/52/pc 89/58/s
92/67/pc 92/64/t
67/55/pc 63/54/pc
91/54/s 90/54/t
70/53/s 74/54/s
86/55/pc 94/60/s
90/54/pc 89/56/t
85/48/pc 89/53/s
87/54/pc 96/58/s
87/51/s 94/55/s
87/63/s 95/66/s
87/59/s 87/56/s
88/53/pc 86/56/s
82/48/pc 85/53/s
88/54/s 92/55/s
89/55/s 91/57/s
91/54/s 89/55/s
Grand View
Arock
59/90
60/91
Shown is Friday’s weather. Temperatures are Thursday night’s lows and Friday’s highs.
City
Astoria
Bend
Boise
Brookings
Burns
Coos Bay
Corvallis
Council
Elgin
Eugene
Hermiston
Hood River
Imnaha
John Day
Joseph
Kennewick
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
Diamond
58/90
Fields
Medford
Brookings
Boise
66/92
Silver Lake
Chiloquin
FRI.
Flooding struck Erie, Pa., on Aug. 4, 1915,
killing 75 people, destroying bridges and
inundating streets. Such sudden local
fl oods are major hazards in the summer.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
60/89
59/93
51/88
REGIONAL CITIES
WEATHER HISTORY
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
Death Valley, Calif.
Gothic, Colo.
Effi ngham, Ill.
High: 98°
Low: 52°
Wettest: 0.18”
Beaver Marsh
Juntura
52/91
51/84
54/87
Roseburg
Ontario
67/94
Burns
Brothers
55/87
Coos Bay
Huntington
50/86
53/85
Oakridge
59/90
65/93
Seneca
Bend
Elkton
Council
46/83
54/88
50/86
Florence
TUESDAY EXTREMES
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
47/79
John Day
49/87
Sisters
53/70
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.
52/90
Baker City
Redmond
50/65
53/67
Halfway
Granite
53/86
Newport
59/83
87 51
54/88
53/87
56/88
Corvallis
Enterprise
47/82
50/85
Monument
54/88
Idanha
Salem
TONIGHT
8
Elgin
48/85
La Grande
53/81
Maupin
Comfort Index™
55/85
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
58/86
Hood River
54/85
TIllamook
46 83 45
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Walla Walla
55/88
Vancouver
56/85
49/75
Baker City
disturbance to a minimum
— practices that benefi t
soil health and reduce soil
erosion. But he said cover
crops also have drawbacks,
requiring farmers who want
an environmental benefi t to
change their practices.
“There’s just more time
involved with doing cover
crops,” he said.
The bill also includes
money for research. While
it is clear that managing soil
properly can capture carbon,
more needs to be known
about important questions
like how long sequestered
carbon stays in soil.
Kaiyu Guan, a professor
focused on climate and agri-
culture at the University of
Illinois at Urbana Cham-
paign, said some people
believe farmers don’t pay
enough attention to climate
change.
“I think farmers
shouldn’t be blamed, they
actually should be incentiv-
ized,” Guan said. “Not only
are they doing this to be
part of the solution to help
the climate, they are doing
this to help their land.”
FRI.
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
SAT.
Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W
86/59/pc 92/61/s
81/55/s 90/60/s
81/41/s 86/45/s
96/66/s 99/69/s
65/50/s 67/51/s
79/50/s 89/53/s
94/68/s 93/62/t
88/53/s 94/54/s
85/54/pc 93/59/s
85/60/s 96/64/s
75/56/s 80/58/s
87/50/s 91/53/s
89/61/s 95/66/s
88/57/s 95/63/s
81/56/s 86/58/s
91/62/s 97/64/s
78/40/pc 85/44/s
85/58/s 89/64/s
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
Partly sunny
Partly sunny
66
42
82
46
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Mostly sunny
Partly sunny
73
44
89
54
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Partly sunny
Partly sunny
72
37
74
37
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Partly sunny
Partly sunny; nice
82
48
83
53
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Partly sunny
Partly sunny; nice
83
45
85
46