COFFEE BREAK
B8 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2021
Birth mother reconnects with biological son
he should be spending with his
family? And, after his mother
passes away, what role should
I play in his life? His father is
deceased, and he and his adopted
brother are estranged. — Bio
mom in Texas
Dear Bio Mom: Your son
should have told his adoptive
mother about the reunion, regard-
less of who initiated it. I think it
would be better for everyone if
she was included. A way to do
that would be to thank her for
taking such good care of your son
and helping him to become the
man he is today. I do not think
secrecy is healthy. If it backfi res,
there will be deeply hurt feelings
because of the subterfuge. At this
point in your son’s life it’s too late
Dear Abby: When I was an
unmarried 18-year-old, I had a
child out of wedlock. Unsure that
I could provide for him, I chose
to place him for adoption so he
would have a chance for a better
life. This year, we connected
through DNA. The reunion has
been great, even though I choose
to remain in the background
because his mother is still living.
Would it be appropriate this
fall and winter to include him in
my holiday festivities as long as
it doesn’t interfere with the time
for you to be his mommy. How-
ever, you CAN be a good friend,
since his only family now is the
woman who loved and raised him.
Dear Abby: I have been dating
a man for almost three years.
He’s retired; I’m still working. He
refuses to stay with me during the
week because I need to go to bed
early. I see him only on the week-
ends. Am I wrong for wanting
him to stay with me during the
week? I feel like we really don’t
have a relationship. My previous
boyfriends would stay with me
every night. Am I doomed with
this man? By the way, he’s been
married four times. — Wants
more in Michigan
Dear Wants More: Wake up.
The man you have been dating
isn’t going to change. He has
struck out at marriage four times
and may have “plans” during the
week that do not include staying
with a “Sleeping Beauty.” If you
want more companionship than
what you’re getting, you are going
to have to seek it elsewhere.
Dear Abby: My daughter is
getting married. Her father and
I never married, but legally he’s
listed as her father. For the past
40 years she has used my last
name. Well, her wedding invita-
tion arrived today and her father’s
name is on it. Mine isn’t even
mentioned!
My parents and I raised her.
Her dad was around but never an
active father. I raised her, but he
gets the glory and the privilege of
walking her down the aisle? She
says I’m being “a wacko.” Must I
accept this and let it go? I feel so
hurt that I really don’t want to go
to the wedding. — Loving mom
left out
Dear Mom: I understand your
feelings. If you haven’t asked your
daughter why she chose to do
this, you should. At the least, you
deserve an explanation. Please
understand that if you refuse to
go to her wedding, it could create
a permanent rift. There may be
grandchildren and milestones
you also could miss. Of course,
the decision is yours to make, but
since you asked me to weigh in,
I’m suggesting you take the high
road, attend and support your
daughter on “her” day.
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
Persephone, the robot guide, leads visitors in a Greek cave
The Associated Press
ALISTRATI, Greece —
Persephone is a tour guide
in Greece, but perhaps not
the type people are used to.
Billed as the world’s fi rst
robot tour guide inside a
cave, Persephone has been
welcoming visitors since
mid-July to the Alistrati
Cave in northern Greece, 84
miles northeast of the city of
Thessaloniki.
The multilingual robot
covers the fi rst roughly 500
feet of the part of the cave
that is open to the public. In
the remaining 2,400 feet, a
human guide takes over.
The robot was named
Persephone because,
according Greek myth,
it was in a nearby plain
that Pluto — the god of
the underworld who was
also known as Hades —
abducted Persephone, with
the consent of her father
Zeus, to take her as his wife.
The robot can give its
part of the tour in 33 lan-
Giannis Papanikos/Associated Press
Persephone guides the visitors inside Alistrati cave, about 84 miles northeast of Thessaloniki, Greece,
on Aug. 2, 2021. Persephone, billed as the world’s fi rst robot used as a tour guide inside a cave, has been
welcoming visitors to the Alistrati cave since mid-July.
guages and interact at a
basic level with visitors in
three languages. It can also
answer 33 questions, but
only in Greek.
Nikos Kartalis, the scien-
tifi c director for the Alistrati
site, had the idea of creating
the robot when he saw one
on TV guiding visitors at an
art gallery. Seventeen years
later, “we got our funds and
the robot guide became a
reality,” Kartalis told The
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
Associated Press.
The robot was built by
the National Technology
and Research Foundation
and cost $139,000.
“We already have a 70%
increase in visitors com-
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
52/66
Kennewick
53/75
St. Helens
60/79
55/79
Condon
58/85
57/78
Turning cloudy
Baker City
41 78 46
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
9
46 77 49
Comfort Index™ 10
74 41
76 40
Eugene
10
10
10
51/79
76 49
71 46
75 45
10
10
10
9
68 42
72 45
10
10
10
9
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Sunday
Low Sunday
High: 109°
Low: 25°
Wettest: 5.13”
82°
37°
83°
43°
78°
40°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Sunday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
0.00
0.65
0.30
3.11
6.29
0.00
0.42
0.48
6.54
11.14
0.11
0.42
0.45
15.79
15.68
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
HAY INFORMATION WEDNESDAY
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
Powers
51/74
20%
NW at 6 to 12 mph
10.2
0.20
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Monday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
0% of capacity
27% of capacity
18% of capacity
47% of capacity
0% of capacity
0% of capacity
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
TUE.
WED.
6:04 a.m.
7:44 p.m.
9:12 p.m.
8:18 a.m.
6:06 a.m.
7:42 p.m.
9:31 p.m.
9:26 a.m.
MOON PHASES
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Sunday)
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
Medford
Lakeview
Troutdale
SUN & MOON
561 cfs
1 cfs
90 cfs
43 cfs
79 cfs
7 cfs
Last
Aug 29
New
Sep 6
First
Sep 13
Full
Sep 20
Silver Lake
Jordan Valley
Paisley
Frenchglen
49/82
Diamond
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
42/78
39/79
McDermitt
46/83
RECREATION FORECAST WEDNESDAY
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
Hi/Lo/W
66/56/pc
77/44/s
85/56/s
65/51/pc
81/47/s
68/52/pc
76/51/pc
85/51/s
77/51/pc
79/51/s
85/65/pc
79/60/pc
82/53/pc
81/48/pc
78/52/pc
83/61/pc
78/39/pc
79/39/pc
Hi/Lo/W
67/56/pc
78/47/s
83/55/s
69/55/s
80/43/s
70/55/pc
79/54/pc
81/49/s
75/47/c
82/53/s
83/61/c
78/60/pc
81/49/pc
77/46/s
71/44/pc
83/58/s
80/44/s
80/43/s
52/88
48/85
Fields
Shown is Wednesday’s weather. Temperatures are Tuesday night’s lows and Wednesday’s highs.
THU.
Grand View
Arock
49/80
49/86
54/85
WED.
Boise
50/80
44/81
39/75
Medford
Brookings
49/86
57/85
51/86
49/65
Juntura
43/78
Chiloquin
OREGON
The temperature in Washington, D.C.,
dropped to 49 degrees on Aug. 24, 1890.
The high temperature of 51 degrees in
nearby Baltimore, Md., matched the
record low daily maximum for the month
of August.
52/81
Ontario
53/87
43/81
42/75
Beaver Marsh
Grants Pass
Huntington
61/84
Burns
Brothers
39/74
Roseburg
55/85
45/77
50/77
Oakridge
52/68
WEATHER HISTORY
49/81
Seneca
49/78
Coos Bay
Death Valley, Calif.
Bodie State Park, Calif.
Columbia, S.C.
High: 87°
Low: 28°
Wettest: 0.03”
44/80
Council
41/78
John Day
Bend
Elkton
SUNDAY EXTREMES
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
44/73
47/78
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.
ALMANAC
Sisters
52/74
72 44
48/82
Baker City
Redmond
50/61
52/64
Halfway
Granite
50/76
Newport
77 45
10
50 77 52
Sunny and
pleasant
50/82
46/73
53/81
Corvallis
Enterprise
46/77
50/77
Monument
56/79
Idanha
Salem
SAT
Clouds and sun; Partly sunny and Nice with plenty
pleasant
nice
of sun
Comfort Index™ 10
La Grande
FRI
Elgin
45/77
La Grande
50/76
Maupin
THU
55/81
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
50/79
Lewiston
55/83
Hood River
53/81
50/68
WED
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Walla Walla
54/83
Vancouver
54/78
TIllamook
TONIGHT
Persephone, with a white
body, black head and two
luminous eyes, moves on
wheels, guiding visitors to
the fi rst three of eight stops
along the walkway. She can
do two more stops, but her
low speed slows down the
tour, which is conducted
in three languages. Perse-
phone’s creators are consid-
ering ways to speed her up.
The robot’s begins by
saying: “My name is Perse-
phone, I am the daughter
of the goddess Demeter
and the wife of Pluto, the
god of the underworld. I
welcome you to my under
Earth kingdom, the Alistrati
Cave.”
Many visitors are
intrigued by the robot guide.
“It was surprising for
me. I’ve never experi-
enced such a thing. Actu-
ally, honestly, I prefer a live
guide, but it’s interesting
doing it this way. And I
like the pace of the robot.
It goes slower, so I can
look around,” said Patrick
Markes, a Czech visitor.
pared to last year since we
started using” the robot,
says Kartalis. “People are
enthusiastic, especially the
children, and people who
had visited in the past are
coming back to see the
robot guide.”
The robot moves along a
walkway, passing through
an ornate landscape of
stalactites and stalag-
mites. These varied forma-
tions can reach 50 feet tall
and are seen throughout
the cave’s nearly .6-mile
walkway, which is acces-
sible to people with limited
mobility.
“This cave is one of the
most beautiful, not only in
Greece but in Europe, as
well,” says Kartalis. “It has
stalactites and stalagmites
in many shapes and colors,
even red.”
He said the cave was 3
million years old and was
fi rst explored in 1974 by
the Hellenic Speleological
Society and a team of Aus-
trian speleologists. It opened
to visitors in 1998.
By COSTAS KANTOURIS
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
WED.
THU.
ANTHONY LAKES
PHILLIPS LAKE
Hi/Lo/W
83/59/pc
75/54/c
77/49/pc
85/55/s
61/51/c
73/54/c
87/58/s
85/57/pc
81/60/pc
78/57/pc
74/48/pc
80/43/s
81/52/s
81/54/s
77/53/pc
85/61/pc
76/44/pc
81/60/pc
Hi/Lo/W
81/59/s
71/58/c
75/45/c
87/56/s
62/52/pc
70/54/c
86/57/s
83/56/s
80/58/c
76/59/c
77/53/s
79/45/s
83/55/s
80/58/pc
76/51/pc
81/60/pc
74/41/pc
78/59/pc
Cool with some sun
Partly sunny; nice
53
75
42
BROWNLEE RES.
Cool with some sun
Turning cloudy
62
48
87
60
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Partly sunny
Clouds and sun
63
42
70
42
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Some sun
Partly sunny
78
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice
39
MT. EMILY REC.
52
80
55
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Nice with some sun
Partly sunny
78
46
77
52
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