COFFEE BREAK 8B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD TuESDAY, JunE 1, 2021 Friend deflects unwanted questions by lying bing and saying, “folks at my church.” It managed to change the direction of the conversa- tion, but I wish people wouldn’t pry like that. This also happens when I’m at a party and someone asks me why I’m not drinking. It’s easy to respond to one question with a general answer, but a lot of times I encounter folks who keep pushing. I would like to encourage your readers to be sensitive to these kinds of situations and to allow people their privacy. Thanks, Abby. — Anonymous and Sober in the South Dear Anonymous: So would I, and you’re welcome. There is no shortage of nosy questions DEAR ABBY ADVICE Dear Abby: I went to lunch with “Anita,” who proceeded to question me about how I know my friend “Gail.” It seems like an innocent question, but Gail and I met in Alcoholics Anonymous. I didn’t tell Anita we met in AA because it would’ve destroyed Gail’s anonymity, so I said we met through mutual friends. I didn’t mind one question, but Anita kept probing about “mutual friends.” I wound up fib- too much? If the situation were reversed, I would offer help imme- diately. — In A Tough Spot in Kentucky Dear Tough Spot: Please accept my deepest sympathy for the loss of your husband. No, it’s not wrong to want your relatives to offer to help you out with a bridge loan until the money you’re expecting arrives. However, because they didn’t offer, ask them for one, and be willing to sign a note if they wish. Then cross your fingers that one of them agrees. If none of them do, approach your employer and ask for an advance on your salary, or contact the water company and ask if you can strike a deal. I wish you luck. months ago (we had no children), my financial situation changed considerably. I have had trouble paying bills, and my water was turned off this morning. When I told my siblings and their families, their answers ranged from “I can’t help you” to “Gee, that sucks!” to “Come have meatloaf for dinner.” My niece, who is financially well-off, commented that it sucked. I told them all that I have no water. I do have a five-day-a- week job. I just don’t have a lot of money because of so many things that have happened. I’ll have the money in a week or so, but I can’t live without water for that long. Is it wrong to want them to offer to help me? Am I expecting that people don’t hesitate to ask these days, as anyone who has read this column is aware. How- ever, to many people, membership in AA is a badge of honor. When “pushed” to answer why they are not drinking alcohol they are upfront about the fact they are in AA. Of course, one does not have to have a drinking problem to avoid alcohol. Some people refrain because they don’t feel well when they drink; others do it because they are taking antibiotics or want to live a healthier lifestyle. The bottom line is you do not have to answer every question that’s asked of you. Dear Abby: When my hus- band of 19 years died suddenly 15 NEWS OF THE WEIRD U.K. drug dealer caught out by cheese photo posted online The Associated Press BAD DREAM STOPPED EVEREST GUIDE FROM CLIMBING PEAK 26TH TIME KATHMANDU, Nepal — A record-holding Sherpa climber halted his attempt to scale Mount Everest for a 26th time because of a bad dream but plans to try again next year. Kami Rita already reached the summit of the world’s highest mountain for a record 25th time earlier this month but stopped his most recent climb more than halfway to the top. “I was making (the 26th) attempt and had reached up to Camp Three but the weather turned bad and I had a really bad dream,” Rita said on return to Kathmandu on a heli- copter from the mountain May 25. “The gods were telling me not to go and because I really believe in God, I decided to return,” he said but would not elaborate on the dream. Sherpas believe Everest to be a Carl Stewart/Merseyside Police Merseyside Police released these photos Thursday May 27, 2021, showing Carl Stew- art, left, and the photo he posted of himself holding a block of cheese that police used to identify Stewart, who was jailed May 21 for 13 years and six months on var- ious drugs charges. Stewart isn’t alone in having his criminal activities brought to a premature end by his activities on EncroChat. Merseyside Police say around 60,000 users have now been identified worldwide, with about 10,000 of them in the U.K. alone. All are said to be involved in coor- dinating and planning the supply and distribution of drugs and weapons, money laundering and other criminal activity. Merseyside Police arrested more than 60 people as part of Operation Venetic, and three more criminals were sentenced to long-term prison weather | Go to AccuWeather.com terms May 26. Three more were due for sentencing May 27. Shaun Harrison, 33, was one of those, sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis. Har- rison was caught out after he revealed personal details of him- self on EncroChat, on which he went by the handle “Scantbee and Sandferret.” “Merseyside Police, along with law enforcement agencies across the world, will leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of those AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION Astoria Longview 52/64 Kennewick 58/84 St. Helens 64/96 62/88 Condon 66/98 63/88 WED THU FRI SAT Clear and mild Mostly sunny and hot Very warm Very warm with sunshine Mostly sunny and nice 92 54 86 48 80 41 Eugene 4 6 8 56/90 88 58 86 50 79 45 4 6 8 La Grande 55 95 62 Comfort Index™ Enterprise 3 4 3 53 91 58 Comfort Index™ 6 84 46 78 44 4 6 8 3 ALMANAC NATION (for the 48 contiguous states) High Sunday Low Sunday High: 113° Death Valley, Calif. Low: 23° West Yellowstone, Mont. Wettest: 3.03” Roswell, N.M. 80° 36° 85° 36° PRECIPITATION (inches) Sunday Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Normal year to date 0.00 0.57 1.43 2.23 4.48 0.00 0.06 1.92 5.90 7.73 0.00 0.50 2.16 14.21 11.85 AGRICULTURAL INFO. HAY INFORMATION WEDNESDAY Lowest relative humidity Afternoon wind Hours of sunshine Evapotranspiration 25% NE at 4 to 8 mph 12.1 0.28 RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Monday) Phillips Reservoir Unity Reservoir Owyhee Reservoir McKay Reservoir Wallowa Lake Thief Valley Reservoir 17% of capacity 90% of capacity 49% of capacity 98% of capacity 56% of capacity 89% of capacity STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Sunday) Grande Ronde at Troy 4280 cfs Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder 64 cfs Burnt River near Unity 78 cfs Umatilla River near Gibbon 184 cfs Minam River at Minam 1420 cfs Powder River near Richland 37 cfs On June 1, 1843, snow whitened the ground in Cleveland, Ohio, and Buffalo, N.Y. Cleveland and Buffalo have the most hours of summer sunshine of the major cities in their respective states. SUN & MOON TUE. Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset WED. 5:08 a.m. 5:07 a.m. 8:33 p.m. 8:34 p.m. 1:38 a.m. 2:02 a.m. 11:46 a.m. 12:55 p.m. MOON PHASES Last Jun 2 New Jun 10 First Jun 17 Full Jun 24 Brothers 54/92 Beaver Marsh 52/91 60/91 56/79 Burns Juntura 56/99 Jordan Valley 54/91 Paisley 58/93 Frenchglen Diamond 58/95 Fields Klamath Falls 66/97 53/94 Lakeview 52/92 McDermitt 55/93 RECREATION FORECAST WEDNESDAY THU. Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W 64/54/c 62/50/c 95/58/c 89/54/pc 96/67/s 100/67/s 64/50/pc 64/51/pc 95/60/s 92/58/s 62/48/c 62/51/c 90/51/s 83/52/pc 95/58/s 96/59/pc 95/58/s 89/54/pc 90/51/s 83/54/pc 105/70/s 100/67/pc 96/68/s 89/61/pc 95/61/s 97/61/c 95/62/s 91/58/pc 91/58/s 89/55/t 105/68/s 102/67/s 94/53/s 91/51/s 92/53/pc 92/50/s 60/99 54/95 58/97 REGIONAL CITIES City Astoria Bend Boise Brookings Burns Coos Bay Corvallis Council Elgin Eugene Hermiston Hood River Imnaha John Day Joseph Kennewick Klamath Falls Lakeview Grand View Arock 58/94 Shown is Wednesday’s weather. Temperatures are Tuesday night’s lows and Wednesday’s highs. WED. Boise 63/96 Silver Lake 53/91 Medford Brookings Ontario 61/99 54/95 64/101 50/64 Huntington 64/99 54/93 Chiloquin Grants Pass 57/95 53/91 61/95 Oakridge Roseburg Powers Medford Meacham WEATHER HISTORY 56/95 Seneca 61/87 Coos Bay OREGON High: 91° Low: 30° Wettest: none 57/97 Council 50/93 John Day Bend 51/62 TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin 53/90 60/96 Elkton SUNDAY EXTREMES 79° 35° Sisters Florence 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. 55/96 Baker City Redmond 51/59 52/63 Halfway Granite 56/90 Newport 54/85 89 57 58/97 61/86 62/90 Corvallis Enterprise 53/91 55/95 Monument 63/97 Idanha Salem TONIGHT 4 Elgin 52/95 La Grande 61/91 Maupin Comfort Index™ 66/99 Pendleton The Dalles Portland Newberg 60/91 Lewiston 64/97 Hood River 61/100 52/71 50 93 56 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021 Walla Walla 63/105 Vancouver 61/87 TIllamook Baker City goddess and have a religious cere- mony before stepping on the moun- tain to make their climbs. Rita said he would certainly return next year to try to scale the peak a 26th time. His wife, a few of his friends and government officials greeted him at the Kathmandu airport, but there was no celebratory parade like in the past because the capital is under lockdown due to spiking cases of coronavirus. Rita and 11 other Sherpa guides reached the summit May 7 and fixed ropes that enabled hundreds of other climbers to use the icy route to the top. Rita did not comment about the current virus situation on Everest after a prominent Austrian outfitter over the weekend said at least 100 climbers and support staff on the mountain were infected. Nepalese mountaineering offi- cials have denied there were any active cases at the base camps for climbing the country’s Himalayan mountains. Foreign guide Lukas Furtenbach halted his Everest expedition due to virus fears and said the outbreak was obvious because he could see sick people at base camp and hear them coughing in their tents. people who think they are above the law, and we will continue to target anyone involved in serious organized crime to keep this posi- tive momentum going,” Wilkinson said. LONDON — A drug dealer in the English city of Liverpool thought he was the big cheese — until police got all the evidence they needed to arrest him from a picture he shared of himself holding a small block of creamy Stilton. Carl Stewart, 39, was sen- tenced to 13 years and six months in prison at Liverpool Crown Court last week after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, con- spiracy to supply heroin, MDMA and ketamine and transferring criminal property. Were it not for a photo he shared of himself holding the cheese block from the reputable British retailer, Marks & Spencer, he could very well still be supplying large amounts of drugs. Stewart was arrested after he posted the photo on the encrypted messaging service EncroChat, via his handle “Toffeeforce.” Unbe- knownst to him, the service had been cracked by police in Europe. From that, his palm and finger- prints were analyzed and police had their man. Merseyside Police detective inspector Lee Wilkinson said Stewart had been “caught out by his love of Stilton cheese.” WED. City Lewiston Longview Meacham Medford Newport Olympia Ontario Pasco Pendleton Portland Powers Redmond Roseburg Salem Spokane The Dalles Ukiah Walla Walla THU. Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W 97/66/s 95/63/pc 84/56/s 77/53/c 94/58/s 88/54/pc 97/63/s 93/61/s 59/50/c 59/50/c 81/52/s 73/50/c 99/64/s 100/71/pc 104/66/s 101/63/s 100/69/s 95/63/pc 88/58/s 81/58/pc 79/54/pc 78/53/pc 97/57/pc 91/52/pc 91/57/s 86/57/pc 90/58/s 85/57/pc 92/65/s 91/61/s 98/68/s 93/63/pc 92/58/s 87/49/pc 99/71/s 95/64/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 Warm with sunshine Mostly sunny; warm 69 53 92 56 MT. EMILY REC. BROWNLEE RES. Mostly sunny; warm Sunny and hot 80 58 95 63 EAGLE CAP WILD. EMIGRANT ST. PARK Mostly sunny; warm Mostly sunny; warm 76 45 88 50 WALLOWA LAKE MCKAY RESERVOIR Sunshine and warm Very hot 91 58 98 65 THIEF VALLEY RES. RED BRIDGE ST. PARK Hot Mostly sunny; hot 93 56 95 62 Luxurious linen-like sofa only $ Lay-Z-Boy Recliner $ ® 499 • Free Delivery • In-Store Credit Dresser, Mirror, Queen Bed 3 Pc. 949 only Bedroom $ 999 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