6B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
SATuRDAY, DECEmBER 19, 2020
COFFEE BREAK
Memories of woman cloud devoted dad’s happiness
DEAR ABBY: I have been mar-
DEAR RON: “One conver-
sation” with the woman from
ried to my wife for two years,
your past won’t fix what has gone
after being together for 10 years.
wrong with your marriage. You
We have two kids with a third on
have a responsi-
the way. Our rela-
bility to your wife
tionship is great.
and your growing
It’s healthy.
DEAR
I just have this
family. What you
feeling of loneli-
are experiencing
ABBY
ness. I feel like I
could be symptoms
have my children
of depression. You
and that’s it. My mind often wan-
may be feeling overwhelmed with
ders to a woman from the past.
the responsibilities you now carry
I would never leave my children
and subconsciously yearning for
because they are my world. I just
the carefree years you enjoyed
cannot control or ignore these
before you were formally mar-
ried. Before you feel more alien-
chronic feelings of unhappiness
ated than you already do, I urge
and loneliness. I’ll be honest: I
wish I could just have one conver- you to talk this out with a licensed
sation with said woman. I don’t
psychotherapist.
know what to do.
DEAR ABBY: I have a friend
— RON IN CALIFORNIA who has a habit of giving me
unsolicited gifts. It’s little things
like string lights for my patio or
a small toy for my daughter, but
it makes me feel obligated to give
her a gift back.
I would rather not be stuck in
this continual gift exchange loop,
especially during a pandemic
when you’re not supposed to be
seeing people outside your house-
hold. This friend has shown up
unannounced at my doorstep to
drop off a gift without letting me
know she’s coming.
The last gift she offered I
refused because it was an offen-
sive toy that wasn’t age appro-
priate for my daughter. Was I
right to do that? How can I stop
this cycle without hurting my
friend’s feelings?
— GIFTED IN THE WEST
comments. It creates a barrier
with family, and I think people
distance from her because of it.
I avoid talking to her because
it’s so blunt and rude. How can
I explain that the word now
has a negative connotation and
should be avoided?
— STAYING AWAY TO NOT
GET HURT
DEAR STAYING AWAY:
Address it the next time she
uses “whatever” in conversation
with you. ASK if she is using
the word because she isn’t inter-
ested in what you are trying to
convey and what she means by
it. THEN explain how hearing
it made you feel, because it may
not have been her intent. (If it
was, then you, too, have a right
to distance yourself.)
DEAR GIFTED: Understand
that this friend may not give
you these gifts out of gener-
osity, but because it gives her
an excuse to interact with you.
You have a right to refuse any
item intended for yourself or
your child that you feel is inap-
propriate. Jump off the gift-
giving treadmill by telling this
person her friendship is enough
and you will no longer accept
any gifts because it makes you
uncomfortable.
DEAR ABBY: I have an older
relative who uses the word
“whatever” when she is done
discussing something. I don’t
think she realizes how dismis-
sive it comes across to others.
It’s as if she doesn’t care about
the other person’s opinion or
News of the Weird
Florida’s new
python-sniffing dogs
have first success
ernor for the increased
attention on the problem.
Flamethrower drone
incinerates wasp
nests in China
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
— Truman, the python-
sniffing black Labrador
retriever, recently tracked
down his first snake in a
new program Florida is
using to eradicate the inva-
sive species.
The Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation
Commission recently
began training Truman and
another dog named Eleanor
to detect a python’s scent
and alert handlers when
they’ve come across one.
The first success was last
week when Truman found
an 8-foot Burmese python
in the Rocky Glades Public
Small Game Hunting Area
in Miami-Dade County.
“We’ve got to stay inno-
vative. We’ve got to try new
approaches and the detector
dogs is just one area where
we’re doing that,” commis-
sion Executive Director
Eric Sutton. told commis-
sioners during an update
Dec. 9.
He showed commis-
sioners pictures of the dogs
during a virtual meeting,
including one with Truman
standing behind the massive
snake he found.
“They’re hard workers,
commissioners. They really
are very dedicated and you
can see that they’re very
proud and they should be,”
Sutton said.
Estimated to number
between 100,000 and
300,000, pythons have
become a threat to the
fragile Florida Everglades
ecosystem as they devour
native mammals and birds,
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission via AP
Dog handler Paula Ziadi praises Truman after he tracked down an 8-foot-python Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020, in Miami-Dade
County, Florida. The state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation is beginning a new program to use dogs to sniff out invasive
pythons.
disrupting the natural bal-
ance of predator and prey.
They’ve been successful at
reproducing in the swampy
Everglades because they
have no predators. Females
can lay up to 100 eggs.
Trainers use python-
scented towels and live
pythons with surgically
implanted trackers to
teach the dogs to pick up
a snake’s scent. The dogs
were trained for more than
a month before going out in
the wild, according to the
agency’s website.
And while Burmese
pythons have been known
to eat small alligators and
small deer, Truman and
Eleanor are trained to stay
about 3 feet away from the
reptiles.
The battle to contain the
pythons in the Everglades
and nearby areas has been
a difficult one for Florida,
and Republican Gov. Ron
DeSantis made increasing
eradication efforts a budget
priority. He also signed a
bill that allows the use of
drones to track down the
snakes.
Sutton told commis-
sioners snake hunters hired
by the state captured about
6,300 pythons over the last
four years. He said nearly
40% of that total was in
2020 and credited the gov-
Blue Sky Rescue of Zhong County via AP
A drone equipped with a flamethrower on Dec. 10, 2020,
burns a wasp nest at a village in Zhong county near
Chongqing municipality in southwestern China. A drone
has been converted into the flying flamethrower in cen-
tral China in a fiery campaign to eradicate more than 100
wasp nests.
weather
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
48/50
Kennewick
47/52
St. Helens
50/52
46/53
45/56
50/53
49/54
Condon
TONIGHT
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
Rain tapering
off
Showers around
A morning
shower; colder
Partly sunny and
chilly
44 31
38 17
31 12
Eugene
4
3
3
49/56
49 32
37 22
31 18
3
2
1
La Grande
39 47 38
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
1
3
0
38 47 40
Comfort Index™
4
35 19
29 18
7
2
3
ALMANAC
THURSDAY EXTREMES
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Thursday
Low Thursday
High: 84°
Low: -21°
Wettest: 2.00”
44°
33°
45°
36°
42°
36°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Thursday
Trace
Month to date
0.07
Normal month to date 0.53
Year to date
3.29
Normal year to date
9.70
0.15
0.43
0.97
16.44
15.87
0.48
1.32
1.73
35.11
22.48
HAY INFORMATION SUNDAY
60%
S at 4 to 8 mph
0.5
0.03
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Friday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
8% of capacity
33% of capacity
45% of capacity
25% of capacity
26% of capacity
49% of capacity
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
OREGON
High: 54°
Low: 27°
Wettest: 0.34”
Hermiston
Keno
North Bend
WEATHER HISTORY
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
Hollywood, Fla.
Angel Fire, N.M.
Milton, Mass.
Dry weather is usually in the cards at Las
Vegas, Nev., but a rare heavy rainstorm hit
the city on Dec. 19, 1984. Local fl ooding
deposited silt in area drainage ways,
requiring subsequent spadework.
SUN & MOON
SAT.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
SUN.
7:28 a.m. 7:28 a.m.
4:12 p.m. 4:12 p.m.
11:30 a.m. 11:54 a.m.
9:51 p.m. 10:57 p.m.
MOON PHASES
917 cfs
3 cfs
10 cfs
176 cfs
N.A.
101 cfs
First
Dec 21
Full
Dec 29
Last
Jan 6
New
Jan 12
32/42
37/45
42/52
36/46
Beaver Marsh
29/42
Roseburg
52/58
Brothers
47/54
Coos Bay
48/55
Burns
Jordan Valley
31/44
Paisley
26/44
Frenchglen
33/49
Diamond
Grand View
Arock
33/47
31/45
30/49
Fields
Medford
29/47
Klamath Falls
25/43
Lakeview
25/43
McDermitt
24/42
RECREATION FORECAST SUNDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
MON.
City
Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W
Astoria
50/45/r 52/39/r
Bend
53/36/r 52/25/r
Boise
45/38/c 51/31/pc
Brookings
54/46/r 53/39/r
Burns
46/25/c 48/25/c
Coos Bay
56/47/r 53/39/r
Corvallis
53/48/r 54/36/r
Council
35/32/sn 38/24/c
Elgin
50/42/r 52/33/c
Eugene
56/49/r 56/38/r
Hermiston
57/42/c 58/38/r
Hood River
53/44/r 55/38/r
Imnaha
49/40/r 53/35/c
John Day
45/35/r 52/27/c
Joseph
44/37/r 45/30/c
Kennewick
58/40/c 57/37/r
Klamath Falls 43/21/c 42/24/pc
Lakeview
43/23/c 42/20/c
Boise
35/45
Shown is Sunday’s weather. Temperatures are Saturday night’s lows and Sunday’s highs.
SUN.
33/46
Silver Lake
27/44
41/52
48/54
Juntura
30/46
44/56
Brookings
Ontario
33/43
33/47
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Huntington
33/44
41/53
Oakridge
29/35
33/42
Seneca
Bend
Elkton
Council
36/42
John Day
42/56
Sisters
Florence
Powers
33/42
Baker City
Redmond
49/52
51/55
Halfway
Granite
49/53
Newport
49/56
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.
43/50
48/52
50/54
49/56
49 32
1
Corvallis
Enterprise
38/47
39/47
Monument
44/52
Idanha
Salem
Rain and drizzle
late
4
Elgin
41/50
La Grande
44/50
Maupin
Comfort Index™
47/55
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
46/58
Hood River
47/55
TIllamook
36 42 35
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020
Walla Walla
47/58
Vancouver
46/50
48/51
Baker City
BEIJING — A drone
has been converted into a
flying flamethrower in cen-
tral China in a fiery cam-
paign to eradicate more
than 100 wasp nests.
Blue Sky Rescue, a vol-
unteer group that conducts
search and rescue and other
emergency work, have
teamed up with villagers in
Zhong county near the city
of Chongqing.
They raised 80,000 yuan
($12,200) to buy a drone
and equip it with a gaso-
line tank and an arm-length
nozzle.
Videos released by Blue
Sky show a recent mis-
sion by the six-arm drone.
It hovers above a hive as
large as a suitcase before
swooping down. The drone
operator flips the ignition
switch, and the drone spits
bursts of fire onto the hive.
“The burning ashes of
the wasp’s nest gradually
peeled off and fell, and
the surrounding residents
applauded and praised
the rescue team,” said an
article on a local news
app run by state-owned
Chongqing TV.
The article quotes a resi-
dent thanking Blue Sky for
helping the village: “Now
we don’t have to worry
about being stung by a
wasp.”
Blue Sky said it has
destroyed 11 hives so
far. There are more than
100 to go.
— Associated Press
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
SUN.
MON.
Hi/Lo/W
58/45/r
52/49/r
43/38/r
52/38/c
52/48/r
51/45/r
43/32/c
58/42/c
55/44/r
53/48/r
58/49/r
56/39/r
55/44/r
54/47/r
47/37/c
56/43/r
44/41/r
55/45/c
Hi/Lo/W
57/38/r
51/35/r
47/29/r
52/36/r
51/42/r
51/34/r
46/32/pc
61/38/r
56/35/r
53/41/r
55/37/sh
55/29/r
53/40/sh
53/37/r
50/32/r
59/40/r
48/29/r
58/37/r
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
Rain and snow
Bit of rain, snow
37
30
42
33
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Rain tapering off
Rain and drizzle
43
38
39
32
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Snow, 1-3”
A little a.m. rain
38
30
43
40
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Rain and drizzle
Rain and drizzle
44
37
55
44
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Rain and drizzle
Rain tapering off
42
35
47
38