6B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
SATuRDAY, NOVEmBER 14, 2020
COFFEE BREAK
Relatives pressed into manual labor by aunt who lives alone
DEAR ABBY: Ten months ago,
my aunt’s 66-year-old live-in boy-
friend died unexpectedly. She
has no children and is left with
a four-bedroom,
two-bathroom
house to take care
of by herself. She
has always been in
debt (I think), and
his final expenses only made it
worse.
Since his death, she has
expected my family (mostly me)
to complete a list of chores every
time I visit. I have been asked to
hook up her garden hose, plant
grass, exterminate bees, replant
flowers, vacuum — even move her
boyfriend’s ashes from the orig-
inal bag to a more permanent
urn. So far, I have managed to
avoid taking care of her pool and
cutting her grass, but it’s only a
matter of time before
the neighbors stop
DEAR
doing it for her.
I love my aunt,
ABBY
and she has done
a lot for me over
the years. I realize she has no
kids to take care of her, but I
don’t think I should be expected
to be her lackey for the next 30
years. How do I tell her I can’t be
responsible for taking care of her
house without getting her upset
or angry? Is it my place to say
something to her mother and sib-
lings? She has been very emo-
What’s the protocol on intro-
ducing yourselves to neighbors?
Given that everything is in flux
and we still don’t know if it’s safe,
I don’t want to let that become an
excuse to put it off indefinitely.
— NEIGHBORLY
DEAR NEIGHBORLY: It is
not too late. A charming way to
introduce yourselves would be to
deliver — or have delivered — a
small plant to each of your neigh-
bors, with a short note explaining
that you are new to the commu-
nity, you are a professional baker
and you regret that the quarantine
makes it impossible to reach out
in a more personal way. Be sure
to include your address and phone
number.
making any decisions, but it might
be the solution — not only to her
problem, but also to yours.
DEAR ABBY: My husband
and I bought a house and moved
in literally the day COVID was
announced as a national emer-
gency. I had planned to go around
to our new neighbors and intro-
duce ourselves, perhaps with
a small gift (I’m a baker). That
obviously hasn’t been possible.
We’ve had some over-the-fence
interactions with a couple of
neighbors, but I feel bad I haven’t
reached out to the others.
My husband and I are pri-
vate, introverted people, but I still
want to make ourselves known
as approachable. Is it too late?
tional since the death, and we’ve
all been walking on eggshells, but
she won’t go to therapy.
— OVERWHELMED
NEPHEW
DEAR NEPHEW: Your aunt
may not need a therapist as much
as she needs a grief support group
to help her work through her loss.
Her mood swings, which I am
sure surge and wane from day to
day, are magnified by her money
problems. Because the house and
yard are now too much for her to
handle alone, it might make sense
for her to downsize and put the
money she gets from selling the
place to work for her. Of course,
she should run the idea by her
attorney or accountant before
News of the Weird
Flash of luck:
Astronomers find
cosmic radio burst
source
A flash of luck helped
astronomers solve a cosmic
mystery: What causes pow-
erful but fleeting radio
bursts that zip and zigzag
through the universe?
Scientists have known
about these energetic pulses
— called fast radio bursts
— for about 13 years and
have seen them coming
from outside our galaxy,
which makes it harder to
trace them back to what’s
causing them. Making it
even harder is that they
happen so fast, in a couple
of milliseconds.
Then this April, a rare
but considerably weaker
burst coming from inside
our own Milky Way galaxy
was spotted by two dissim-
ilar telescopes: one a Cal-
ifornia doctoral student’s
set of handmade antenna s,
which included actual cake
pans, the other a $20 mil-
lion Canadian observatory.
They tracked that fast
radio burst to a weird type
of star called a magnetar
that’s 32,000 light-years
from Earth, according to
four studies in the Nov.
4 edition of the journal
Nature.
It was not only the first
fast radio burst traced to a
source, but the first ema-
nating from our galaxy.
Astronomers say there
could be other sources for
these bursts, but they are
now sure about one guilty
party: magnetars.
Magnetars are incredibly
dense neutron stars, with
1.5 times the mass of our
sun squeezed into a space
the size of Manhattan. They
have enormous magnetic
Andre Renard/University of Toronto via AP
Astronomers on Nov. 4, 2020, announced they used the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment radio telescope in Kaleden, British Colum-
bia, Canada, to trace an April 2020 fast cosmic radio burst to our galaxy and a type of powerful energetic young star called a magnetar. A California
doctoral student’s set of handmade antennas also detected the burst.
fields that buzz and crackle
with energy, and sometimes
flares of X-rays and radio
waves burst from them,
according to McGill Uni-
versity astrophysicist Ziggy
Pleunis, a co-author of the
Canadian study.
The magnetic field
around these magnetars “is
so strong any atoms nearby
are torn apart and bizarre
aspects of fundamental
physics can be seen,” said
astronomer Casey Law of
the California Institute of
Technology, who wasn’t
part of the research.
There are maybe a dozen
or so of these magnetars
in our galaxy, apparently
because they are so young
and part of the star birth
process, and the Milky
Way is not as flush with
star births as other galaxies,
said Cornell University
Shami Chatterjee, who also
wasn’t part of either dis-
covery team.
This burst in less than a
second contained about the
same amount of energy our
sun produces in a month,
and still that’s far weaker
than the radio bursts
detected coming from
outside our galaxy, said
Caltech radio astronomer
Christopher Bochenek. He
helped spot the burst with
handmade antennas.
These radio bursts aren’t
dangerous to us, not even
weather
millisecond,” Cornell’s
Chatterjee said. “Unless
you were very, very lucky,
you’re not going to see one
of these.”
Even though this is a
frequent occurrence out-
side the Milky Way, astron-
omers have no idea how
often these bursts happen
inside our galaxy.
“We still don’t know
how lucky we got,”
Bochenek said. “This could
be a once-in-five-year
thing or there could be a
few events to happen each
year.”
Bochenek’s antennas
cost about $15,000. Each is
“the size of a large bucket.
It’s a piece of 6-inch metal
the more powerful ones
from outside our galaxy,
astronomers said.
The ones that come
from outside our galaxy
and travel millions or bil-
lions of light-years are “tens
of thousands to millions of
times more powerful than
anything we have detected
in our galaxy,” said co-au-
thor Daniele Michilli, an
astrophysicist at McGill and
part of the Canadian team.
Scientists think these
are so frequent they may
happen more than 1,000
times a day outside our
galaxy. But finding them
isn’t easy.
“You had to be looking
at the right place at the right
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
46/53
Kennewick
44/54
St. Helens
45/55
Hood River
40/53
40/54
45/55
45/55
Condon
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
Rain and snow
showers
Cloudy
Cloudy
Windy in the
a.m.; cloudy
Rain in the
afternoon
45 34
46 32
46 31
Eugene
3
3
3
46/56
47 42
51 37
47 35
2
3
0
La Grande
36 46 35
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
3
0
3
32 44 31
Comfort Index™
2
51 38
44 35
5
7
1
ALMANAC
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Thursday
Low Thursday
High: 89°
Low: -10°
Wettest: 5.89”
38°
11°
38°
24°
39°
19°
0.00
0.01
0.35
3.01
8.62
0.00
1.36
0.79
15.24
13.66
Trace
2.42
1.12
31.40
18.75
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Thursday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
HAY INFORMATION SUNDAY
55%
S at 6 to 12 mph
2.6
0.05
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Friday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
7% of capacity
25% of capacity
43% of capacity
24% of capacity
19% of capacity
19% of capacity
OREGON
High: 56°
Low: 2°
Wettest: Trace
North Bend
Burns
Astoria
On Nov. 14, 1972, a storm brought record
deep snow for so early in the season. Al-
bany, N.Y., received 17.3 inches, the earli-
est snowfall amounting to a foot or more.
New Hampshire had up to 15 inches.
SUN & MOON
SAT.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
6:50 a.m.
4:23 p.m.
5:58 a.m.
4:22 p.m.
SUN.
6:51 a.m.
4:22 p.m.
7:21 a.m.
4:58 p.m.
MOON PHASES
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Thursday)
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
Zapata, Texas
Stanley, Idaho
Norfolk, Va.
WEATHER HISTORY
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
Florence
984 cfs
1 cfs
11 cfs
114 cfs
89 cfs
18 cfs
New
Nov 14
First
Nov 21
Full
Nov 30
Beaver Marsh
Powers
50/58
Last
Dec 7
49/57
Silver Lake
Jordan Valley
31/42
Paisley
35/45
36/47
Frenchglen
36/46
44/56
Klamath Falls
36/48
City
Astoria
Bend
Boise
Brookings
Burns
Coos Bay
Corvallis
Council
Elgin
Eugene
Hermiston
Hood River
Imnaha
John Day
Joseph
Kennewick
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
Hi/Lo/W
53/43/c
51/38/c
47/39/r
58/54/r
47/30/c
58/49/r
56/43/r
42/35/sn
45/34/sh
56/46/r
58/41/c
53/40/r
47/33/c
46/37/c
43/31/c
59/41/c
48/32/r
44/30/sn
Hi/Lo/W
55/47/r
58/43/pc
55/39/c
62/53/c
53/28/c
64/48/c
60/44/c
44/32/pc
47/40/c
62/44/c
53/40/c
50/41/pc
49/46/c
51/40/c
45/42/c
48/39/c
56/34/c
54/31/pc
36/48
Lakeview
31/44
McDermitt
32/41
RECREATION FORECAST SUNDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
MON.
Grand View
Arock
36/50
37/46
Shown is Sunday’s weather. Temperatures are Saturday night’s lows and Sunday’s highs.
SUN.
Diamond
34/45
Fields
Medford
Brookings
Boise
36/47
47/59
46/58
37/47
36/45
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Juntura
30/47
32/42
34/41
Roseburg
Ontario
37/48
Burns
Brothers
42/51
Coos Bay
Huntington
30/42
39/51
Oakridge
32/42
36/44
Seneca
Bend
Elkton
THURSDAY EXTREMES
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
38/46
38/52
Council
31/44
John Day
38/55
Sisters
51/58
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.
33/43
Baker City
Redmond
47/54
51/55
Halfway
Granite
30/42
41/47
45/55
49/57
45 43
3
Corvallis
37/52
45/56
Newport
Enterprise
32/44
36/46
Monument
38/53
Idanha
Salem
TONIGHT
3
34/45
La Grande
37/50
Maupin
Comfort Index™
Elgin
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
38/51
41/55
41/55
TIllamook
31 44 30
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020
Walla Walla
44/59
Vancouver
43/54
48/56
Baker City
pipe with two literal cake
pans around it,” the doc-
toral student said. They are
crude instruments designed
to look at a giant chunk of
the sky — about a quarter
of it — and see only the
brightest of radio flashes.
Bochenek figured he had
maybe a 1-in-10 chance of
spotting a fast radio burst in
a few years. But after one
year, he hit pay dirt.
Tracking one outburst is
a welcome surprise and an
important finding, he said.
“No one really believed
that we’d get so lucky,”
Chatterjee said. “To find
one in our own galaxy, it
just puts the cherry on top.”
— Associated Press
SUN.
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
MON.
Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W
51/40/c 48/42/c
54/45/sh 55/46/r
44/34/sn 46/41/c
56/44/r 63/45/c
54/45/r 56/48/r
52/41/c 52/43/r
48/38/r 54/38/c
58/43/c 49/40/c
55/41/c 51/43/c
55/46/r 56/48/c
58/51/r 68/52/c
55/38/c 61/41/c
57/47/r 64/47/c
55/44/r 58/44/c
45/36/c 44/36/c
54/43/r 50/43/c
44/34/c 47/41/c
55/44/c 51/43/c
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 little snow
A little snow
29
24
42
30
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
A little snow
Cloudy and chilly
38
32
45
35
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
A little snow
A little snow
32
21
43
30
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Cloudy
Cloudy and milder
43
31
55
41
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Cloudy
Cloudy
44
30
46
35