COFFEE BREAK
B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2021
Romance with prison inmate evolves into love triangle
friend I had “made her uncom-
fortable.” She ended up blocking
me on Facebook.
Abby, he’s now saying he’s
in love with both of us. I’m not
allowed to talk about her, and
anything they talk about is “none
of my business.” I do not get as
many phone calls from him as I
used to, and I think it’s because
of her. I’m not sure what her plans
are, but I get the feeling she’s
trying to get me out of the pic-
ture. Please tell me what to do. —
CROWDED IN ALASKA
DEAR CROWDED: For-
give me for seeming negative,
but from what you have written,
I don’t think this man is in love
with either one of you. What you
DEAR ABBY: I am a
42-year-old mother of three who
has been in a relationship with a
man for almost six years. He is
incarcerated. We started out as
friends. Things were great until
this year, when he reconnected
with an old girlfriend.
I had a conversation with her
over Facebook, and she wanted to
invite me out for coff ee one day. I
ended up messaging her later on
that night, and she told my boy-
should “do” is reassess your rela-
tionship with this two-timing
felon. His ex-girlfriend may
indeed be maneuvering to get you
out of the picture, and my advice
to you, which I sincerely hope you
will follow, is to let her do it. You
may have started out as “friends”
with this man, but friends do
NOT treat friends the way he has
been treating you.
DEAR ABBY: I’ve read many
letters over the years about rela-
tionships in which there is a sig-
nifi cant age gap, and thought
I would like to share a success
story. My boyfriend and I have
a 22-year age diff erence, and we
couldn’t be happier. We are both
divorced with children (his is
cussing wills, estate planning and
the hurdles that come with retire-
ment and raising high schoolers,
but we do it with great respect for
where the other is in their own
journey. This is the best relation-
ship either of us has ever been
in. I’m so glad we didn’t let our
age diff erence prevent us from
enjoying this life together. —
LUCKIEST GIRL IN TEXAS
DEAR LUCKIEST GIRL:
When both parties are adults with
experience in the world, age is
only a number. While there can
be challenges in May-December
unions, you and your boyfriend
appear to be looking at the future
with eyes wide open. Thank you
for your upper of a letter.
grown and lives independently;
mine are 14 and 11). We found
each other about a year before
the pandemic. He was above
the age range I’d specifi ed on
online dating apps, but we met
at a mutual friend’s art opening.
There were immediate sparks,
and we didn’t realize our age dif-
ference until about a week later.
By then the seeds of a mature,
noncodependent relationship were
sprouting.
He’s 60 now, and I am 38. We
live separately, but go back and
forth between the houses most
nights. He’s actively engaged in
my kids’ lives, and we’re talking
about marriage. Because of our
age diff erence, this includes dis-
South African scientists detect new virus variant amid spike
bility, he said. “We can see
that the variant is poten-
tially spreading very fast.
We do expect to start seeing
pressure in the health care
system in the next few days
and weeks.”
De Oliveira said that
a team of scientists from
seven South African univer-
sities is studying the variant.
They have 100 whole
genomes of it and expect to
have many more in the next
few days, he said.
“We are concerned by
the jump in evolution in this
variant,” he said. The one
piece of good news is that
it can be detected by a PCR
test, he said.
After a period of rel-
atively low transmission
in which South Africa
recorded just over 200 new
cases per day, in the past
week the daily new cases
increased to more than
1,200 on Nov. 24. On Nov.
25, they jumped to 2,465.
The fi rst surge was
in Pretoria and the sur-
rounding Tshwane metro-
politan area and appeared
to be cluster outbreaks from
student gatherings at uni-
By ANDREW MELDRUM and
MOGOMOTSI MAGOME
The Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG —
A new coronavirus variant
has been detected in South
Africa that scientists say
is a concern because of its
high number of mutations
and rapid spread among
young people in Gauteng,
the country’s most populous
province, Health Minister
Joe Phaahla announced
Thursday, Nov. 25.
The coronavirus evolves
as it spreads and many new
variants, including those
with worrying mutations,
often just die out. Scien-
tists monitor for possible
changes that could be more
transmissible or deadly, but
sorting out whether new
variants will have a public
health impact can take time.
South Africa has seen a
dramatic rise in new infec-
tions, Phaahla said at an
online press briefi ng.
“Over the last four or
fi ve days, there has been
more of an exponential
rise,” he said, adding that
the new variant appears
to be driving the spike in
cases. Scientists in South
Africa are working to deter-
mine what percentage of the
new cases have been caused
by the new variant.
Currently identifi ed as
Denis Farrell/The Associated Press, File
A baby cries as her mother receives her vaccine against COVID-19, in Johannesburg on Thursday, Oct. 21,
2021. A new COVID-19 variant has been detected in South Africa that scientists say is a concern because
of its high number of mutations and rapid spread among young people in Gauteng, the country’s most
populous province, Minister of Health Joe Phaahla announced Thursday, Nov. 25, 2021.
B.1.1.529, the new variant
has also been found in
Botswana and Hong Kong
in travelers from South
Africa, he said.
The World Health Orga-
nization’s technical working
group met Nov. 26 to assess
the new variant and may
decide whether or not to
give it a name from the
Greek alphabet.
The British govern-
ment banned fl ights from
South Africa and fi ve other
southern African countries
and that anyone who had
recently arrived from those
countries would be asked to
take a coronavirus test.
U.K. Health Secretary
Sajid Javid said there were
concerns the new variant
“may be more transmis-
sible” than the dominant
delta strain, and “the vac-
cines that we currently
have may be less eff ective”
against it.
The new variant has
a “constellation” of new
mutations, said Tulio de
Oliveira, from the Network
for Genomic Surveillance
in South Africa, who has
tracked the spread of the
delta variant in the country.
The “very high number
of mutations is a concern
for predicted immune eva-
sion and transmissibility,”
said de Oliveira.
“This new variant has
many, many more muta-
tions,” including more
than 30 to the spike pro-
tein that aff ects transmissi-
versities in the area, said
health minister Phaahla.
Amid the rise in cases, sci-
entists studied the genomic
sequencing and discovered
the new variant.
“This is clearly a
variant that we must be
very serious about,” said
Ravindra Gupta, professor
of microbiology at the Uni-
versity of Cambridge.
“It has a high number of
spike mutations that could
aff ect transmissibility and
immune response.”
Gupta said scientists in
South Africa need time to
determine if the surge in
new cases is attributable to
the new variant. “There is
a high probability that this
is the case,” he said. “South
African scientists have done
an incredible job of iden-
tifying this quickly and
bringing it to the world’s
attention.”
South African offi cials
had warned that a new
resurgence was expected
from mid-December to
early January and had
hoped to prepare for that by
getting many more people
vaccinated, said Phaahla.
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1429 Adams Ave
La Grande, OR
541-962-7557
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
52/56
Kennewick
56/57
St. Helens
55/60
TIllamook
51/62
47/62
55/60
54/59
Condon
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
Overcast
Mild with some
sun
Cloudy with a
shower
Turning cloudy
Rain and drizzle
47 29
48 31
48 30
Eugene
3
3
1
49/61
47 35
50 44
54 35
4
5
3
Comfort Index™
La Grande
5
42 55 38
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
3
3
8
39 56 37
Comfort Index™
5
52 38
5
7
4
ALMANAC
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Thursday
Low Thursday
High: 86°
Low: -9°
Wettest: 3.15”
43°
30°
46°
37°
48°
38°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Thursday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
0.00
0.65
0.60
5.00
8.08
0.00
1.43
1.61
9.83
15.19
0.00
3.26
2.55
21.77
21.58
HAY INFORMATION SUNDAY
45%
S at 6 to 12 mph
0.1
0.06
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Friday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
N.A.
15% of capacity
14% of capacity
11% of capacity
9% of capacity
6% of capacity
Bend
Lakeview
Astoria
On Nov. 27, 1898, the famous “Portland”
storm formed off Cape Cod, causing the
loss of 200 lives. Many others were lost to
the raging sea in 50 small vessels. Boston
received more than a foot of snow.
SUN & MOON
SAT.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
7:07 a.m.
4:13 p.m.
11:57 p.m.
1:11 p.m.
SUN.
7:08 a.m.
4:12 p.m.
none
1:32 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
OREGON
WEATHER HISTORY
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
Oceanside, Calif.
Langdon, N.D.
Quillayute, Wash.
High: 63°
Low: 13°
Wettest: 0.03”
842 cfs
0 cfs
16 cfs
85 cfs
126 cfs
9 cfs
Last
Nov 27
New
Dec 3
First
Dec 10
Beaver Marsh
Powers
50/63
Full
Dec 18
47/59
Silver Lake
Jordan Valley
36/59
Paisley
36/63
32/55
Frenchglen
40/60
Medford
31/56
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
56/49/sh
62/43/pc
54/35/pc
58/47/pc
54/28/pc
57/48/c
60/47/c
50/32/pc
55/35/pc
61/48/c
62/48/pc
62/49/c
60/43/c
57/42/pc
56/39/pc
64/52/pc
56/26/pc
60/26/pc
Hi/Lo/W
55/48/r
53/38/c
53/34/pc
57/46/c
52/24/pc
58/43/c
56/42/r
46/31/c
46/33/c
56/44/c
59/42/c
59/46/r
52/37/r
51/38/pc
48/34/r
58/42/c
54/26/pc
56/23/pc
33/55
32/57
Lakeview
28/60
McDermitt
31/58
RECREATION FORECAST SUNDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
MON.
Grand View
Arock
35/61
Klamath Falls
Shown is Sunday’s weather. Temperatures are Saturday night’s lows and Sunday’s highs.
SUN.
Diamond
39/59
Fields
44/57
50/58
Boise
37/54
46/60
Brookings
35/53
34/59
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Juntura
32/54
42/61
32/55
Roseburg
Ontario
33/50
Burns
Brothers
48/65
Coos Bay
Huntington
37/55
52/62
Oakridge
35/50
35/48
Seneca
Bend
Elkton
Council
33/51
43/57
49/65
Florence
THURSDAY EXTREMES
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
37/50
John Day
46/64
Sisters
48/57
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.
35/49
Baker City
Redmond
52/58
Halfway
Granite
49/60
Newport
47/61
51 39
42/61
53/61
53/61
50/57
47 31
9
Corvallis
Enterprise
39/56
42/55
Monument
49/64
Idanha
Salem
TONIGHT
33 51 30
Elgin
42/55
La Grande
48/61
Maupin
Baker City
50/61
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
49/59
Hood River
50/64
53/56
Lewiston
Walla Walla
52/64
Vancouver
54/57
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
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
59/47/c
57/53/sh
55/36/pc
57/41/pc
57/47/c
56/47/sh
50/32/pc
64/49/pc
64/46/pc
60/53/c
63/45/c
64/38/pc
59/45/c
61/50/c
54/44/c
62/46/pc
56/38/pc
61/46/pc
Hi/Lo/W
52/40/c
56/50/r
46/34/c
55/37/c
56/45/r
53/46/sh
47/29/c
57/42/c
56/37/c
57/48/r
59/40/c
56/35/c
58/41/pc
57/46/r
50/41/sh
59/43/sh
49/32/c
55/41/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
Partly sunny
Partly sunny
41
34
49
35
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Partly sunny
Partly sunny; mild
47
39
56
36
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Clouds and sun
Partly sunny; mild
41
28
54
35
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Partly sunny
Partly sunny
56
39
64
46
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Sunny intervals
Clouds and sun
51
30
55
38