8B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2020
COFFEE BREAK
Teenager chafes under dad’s strict style of parenting
DEAR ABBY: I am a teenage
girl in an average family. I started
getting interested in LGBTQ+ and
other social justice topics when I
was in ﬁ fth grade.
Since then, I
have realized that,
among other things,
I’m a lesbian, a lib-
eral and an atheist.
This wouldn’t be a problem,
but my father hates many of the
things I am or stand for. He’s an
extremely conservative, Chris-
tian, gun-rights person, and he
wants me and my brothers to
join the military. He constantly
pushes me to be the best that I
can be, and I try, but his idea
of “best” is very different from
mine.
I have several mental prob-
lems, which resulted in me get-
ting special privileges in school.
I use them whenever I can, but
it is never enough
for him. He keeps
DEAR
searching through
my grade book
ABBY
until he ﬁ nds some-
thing new for me to
do, regardless of the date it was
assigned or whether it can be
graded anymore.
I have various restrictions on
my use of technology, so I can
barely contact my friends. It has
gotten to the point that I am wor-
ried about when I come out and
looking forward to college just so I
can get away. Please tell me what
to do in the meantime because col-
lege is ﬁ ve years away.
— WAITING IN VIRGINIA
DEAR WAITING: You and
your dad have very different out-
looks on life, and that’s OK. That
said, you must live under his roof
for the next ﬁ ve years, so be dip-
lomatic and keep some of your
opinions to yourself as long as
possible. You may think your
father is heavy-handed in par-
enting you, but has it occurred to
you that when he goes through
your grade book, he’s trying to
make sure you know how to work
all the problems in it?
Placing restrictions on a
minor’s use of technology is
intelligent parenting, at least for
someone just entering her teens.
Please try to cut him some slack.
Recognize there is a bright future
ahead of you if you concentrate
on your studies to the best of your
ability and buckle down now.
DEAR ABBY: My 32-year-old
son, “Jerry,” wanted to pro-
pose to his girlfriend, but didn’t
have money for a ring. My hus-
band offered him my original
engagement ring, assuming for
some reason (or maybe just not
thinking) that my old ring didn’t
hold sentimental value to me,
although I wore that 1/3-carat
diamond every day for 32 years
before getting a new, larger one.
After the ring was offered, I
felt forced to let him have it. I
knew it wouldn’t ﬁ t his girlfriend,
and I also didn’t think she would
settle for such a small diamond,
but I ﬁ gured he would have the
diamond put into a setting that ﬁ t
her. I got over my feeling of loss
knowing he would use the ring.
Well, he didn’t. He gave her
MY ring, and then they went out
and charged a nice-sized engage-
ment ring that she selected. My
original ring now hangs on a
chain in her jewelry box. Should I
ask for my ring back?
— MEANS A LOT IN TEXAS
DEAR MEANS A LOT:
Because your ﬁ rst engagement
ring is not being used as intended
and was only a place holder until
your son’s ﬁ ancee got what she
really wanted, I see no reason
why you shouldn’t ask, and I also
see no reason why she shouldn’t
graciously comply.
SpaceX’s historic encore: Astronauts arrive at International Space Station
By Marcia Dunn
Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL,
Fla. — SpaceX delivered
two astronauts to the Inter-
national Space Station for
NASA on Sunday, fol-
lowing up a historic liftoff
with an equally smooth
docking in yet another ﬁ rst
for Elon Musk’s company.
With test pilots Doug
Hurley and Bob Behnken
poised to take over manual
control if necessary, the
SpaceX Dragon cap-
sule pulled up to the sta-
tion and docked automati-
cally, no assistance needed.
The hatches swung open
a few hours later, and the
two Dragon riders ﬂ oated
into the orbiting lab and
embraced the three station
residents.
Unlike the SpaceX and
NASA ﬂ ight control rooms,
where everyone was spaced
well apart, there was no
social distancing or masks
needed in orbit since the
new arrivals had been in
quarantine for many weeks.
“The whole world saw
this mission, and we are so,
so proud of everything you
have done for our country
and, in fact, to inspire the
world,” NASA Adminis-
trator Jim Bridenstine said
in a call from Mission Con-
trol in Houston.
Hurley credited SpaceX
and added, “It’s great
to get the United States
back in the crewed launch
business.”
It was the ﬁ rst time a
privately built and owned
spacecraft carried astro-
nauts to the space station
in its more than 20 years of
existence. NASA considers
this the opening volley in a
business revolution encir-
cling Earth and eventually
stretching to the moon and
Mars.
“NASA is not going to
purchase, own and operate
rockets and capsules the
way we used to,” Bridens-
tine said. “”We’re going to
partner with commercial
industry.”
The docking occurred
barely 19 hours after a
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
blasted off Saturday after-
noon from Kennedy Space
Center, the nation’s ﬁ rst
astronaut launch to orbit
from home soil in nearly
a decade and drawing a
73rd
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Be safe, practice social distancing.
Photo by NASA via AP
Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, far right, join the the crew at the International
Space Station, after the SpaceX Dragon capsule pulled up to the station and docked Sun-
day, May 31. The Dragon capsule arrived Sunday, hours after liftoff from Florida. It’s the
ﬁ rst time a privately built and owned spacecraft has delivered a crew to the orbiting lab.
Washington delegation led
by President Donald Trump.
NASA said peak viewership
online hit 10 million.
Despite the corona-
virus pandemic, thou-
sands jammed surrounding
beaches, bridges and towns
as SpaceX ended a nine-
year launch drought for
NASA. The achievement,
years in the making, is
expected to drive down
launch costs so more people
might be able to afford
a ticket to space in the
coming years.
Behnken told the wel-
coming committee at
NASA’s Johnson Space
Center that the Dragon was
“a slick vehicle” and said he
was surprised at how rough
the ride was on the latter
part of ascent, compared
with the space shuttle,
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which he and Hurley rode
twice.
Two Texas members of
Congress at Johnson for the
docking — Sen. Ted Cruz
and Rep. Brian Babin —
said the ﬂ ight offered inspi-
ration and hope during a
particularly tough time of
protests and pandemic.
“Having it go off without
a hitch was a tremendous
blessing for our country,”
Babin told the astronauts.
Gleaming white in the
sunlight, the Dragon was
easily visible on NASA TV
from a few miles away from
the space station, its nose
cone open and exposing its
docking hook as well as a
blinking light. Hurley and
Behnken took over the con-
trols and did a little piloting
less than a couple hundred
yards out as part of the test
ﬂ ight, before putting it back
into automatic for the ﬁ nal
approach.
Once on board the
space station, Hurley said
the capsule, newly named
Endeavour after the retired
shuttle, handled extremely
well. He was the pilot on
the last U.S. spaceship to
visit the space station —
the last shuttle ﬂ ight, by
Atlantis, in July 2011.
Restoring American
launch capability nine years
later, he noted, “is just one
effort that we can show for
the ages in this dark time
that we’ve had over the
past several months to kind
of inspire, especially the
young people in the United
States, to reach for these
lofty goals.”
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