COFFEE BREAK
B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
SATuRDAY, DECEmBER 11, 2021
Neighbor wants to express thanks for help provided
covered I could remove the bat-
tery. I knocked on the door of
a neighbor who’d previously
popped their head out and asked
to use their cellphone and also
asked if there was any chance
they had a replacement battery,
which they did. My neighbor
invited me inside to call my wife
and wave off a key delivery.
I later stopped and bought a
thank-you card, a replacement
battery and $20 in Amazon
gift cards with the intention of
gifting all three to my neighbor.
My wife thinks the gift cards
were unnecessary and a “weird”
thing to give my neighbor.
The neighbor and their
partner are in their late 30s or
DEAR ABBY: I went for
a jog the other morning, and
when I returned home I dis-
covered I was locked out of my
house because the garage door
keypad wasn’t working. I had
left without my cellphone or a
key, so I tried to contact my wife
through our Ring doorbell. My
wife told me she’d phone a friend
and my mother to see if they
could deliver a key.
In the interim, I fidgeted with
the garage door keypad and dis-
early 40s, seemingly financially
well enough off, and I thought
a gift card was a universally
accepted gift. I thought it would
be a nice gesture without being
too over-the-top. Was I too gen-
erous? Or is it too forward of an
offering? — SAVED IN THE
MIDWEST
DEAR SAVED: Your offering
wasn’t weird, too generous or
over-the-top. The gratitude you
were expressing was from your
heart and a reflection of how des-
perate you felt at the time. Your
wife should have stayed out of it.
DEAR ABBY: Forty years
ago, I had an affair with a mar-
ried man. When he broke up with
me, I didn’t think I could live
through it, but I had a 2-year-old
daughter from another relation-
ship and I had to hold it together.
A few years later, I met and mar-
ried my husband of 35 years.
Three months ago, I received
a message on Facebook saying,
“If this is who I think it is, how
are things?” I know I never
should have, but I answered.
My former lover lives hundreds
of miles from me, but we text
almost every day. I am just real-
izing how narcissistic he is, and I
need to end this.
My husband and I have had
problems over the years, but we
have raised three very successful
children and have three beautiful
grandkids. It was nice to hear
how my ex always loved me and
how we are soul mates — saying
everything I wanted to hear. But
now that I’ve been dragged down
that rabbit hole, I need to get
out and quit falling for his lies.
Please help. — MUDDLED IN
MASSACHUSETTS
DEAR MUDDLED: If this
emotional fling continues, it will
destroy the life you have created
with your husband of 35 years. If
there are issues in your marriage
that made you vulnerable to
your old lover, I urge you to deal
with them. Please reread the first
paragraph of your letter, then
ghost and block this person. You
owe him nothing — not even a
goodbye.
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
Footprints show some two-legged dinosaurs were agile
court since Dec. 15, 2015,
for that refusal. He is also
incurring a daily fine of
$1,000.
Thompson’s case dates
to his discovery of the S.S.
Central America, known as
the Ship of Gold, in 1988.
The gold rush-era ship sank
in a hurricane off South
Carolina in 1857 with thou-
sands of pounds of gold
aboard, contributing to an
economic panic.
Despite an investor’s
lawsuit and a federal court
order, Thompson, 69,
still won’t cooperate with
authorities trying to find
those coins, according
to court records, federal
prosecutors and the judge
who found Thompson in
contempt.
Thompson says he’s
already said everything
he knows about the coins.
Thompson pleaded guilty
in April 2015 for his
failure to appear for a 2012
hearing and was sentenced
to two years in prison and a
$250,000 fine. But Thomp-
son’s criminal sentence
has been delayed until the
issue of the gold coins is
resolved.
Federal law generally
limits jail time for contempt
of court to 18 months. But
a federal appeals court in
2019 rejected Thompson’s
argument that that law
applies to him, saying his
refusal violates conditions
of a plea agreement.
After technology prob-
lems cancelled Thomp-
son’s latest virtual hearing
last week, federal Judge
Algenon Marbley sched-
uled a new hearing for
Jan. 7.
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Not all
two-legged dinosaurs were
like the lumbering Tyran-
nosaurus rex.
An analysis of dino-
saur tracks from 120 mil-
lion years ago unearthed
in Spain adds to growing
evidence that these meat-
eating prehistoric beasts
belonging to the same
group as T. rex could be
highly agile.
The findings, published
Thursday, Dec. 9, in Sci-
entific Reports, reveal
one of the fastest known
sets of fossilized dinosaur
footprints.
These tracks join the
ranks of other speedy sets
found in Utah and Texas,
one of which shows dino-
saurs running at speeds
over 30 mph. The Spanish
footprints showed speeds
of nearly 28 mph.
To calculate the running
speed, scientists measured
the length of the footprint
and took into account the
dinosaur’s hip height and
stride length — the dis-
tance between two consec-
utive footprints of the same
foot.
All of the fastest known
sets of prints come from a
family of dinosaurs called
theropods. These carniv-
orous dinosaurs stood on
two legs and could not fly,
like the famed velociraptor.
The animals that created
the most recent impressions
were probably 5 to 6-1/2
feet tall and 13 to 16 feet
long from mouth to tail, the
researchers estimated.
Scientists think there
may be other faster dino-
Alberto Labrador/The Associated Press
A researcher measures a 120 million year-old fossilized dinosaur footprint in the La Rioja region in northern Spain, while doing research
about dinosaur running speeds, in October 2020. Scientists discovered one of the quickest sets of theropod tracks in the world through this
research.
saurs, but the tracks of
theropods have been easier
to track down.
“Behavior is something
very difficult to study in
dinosaurs,” said lead author
Pablo Navarro-Lorbés of
the University of La Rioja.
“These kind of findings are
very important, I think,
weather
| Go
agile animals,” said Smith-
sonian paleontologist Hans
Sues, who had no role in the
study.
for improving that kind of
knowledge.”
Scientists typically pre-
dict dinosaur behavior
through computer modeling
of the creatures’ movement.
Physical examination of
fossilized footprints con-
firm the results.
These are “clearly active,
to AccuWeather.com
sure hunter is preparing
to mark his sixth year in
jail for refusing to disclose
the whereabouts of 500
missing coins made from
gold found in an historic
shipwreck.
Research scientist
Tommy Thompson has
been held in contempt of
6 years and counting:
Ex-treasure hunter still
stuck in jail
COLUMBUS, Ohio —
A former deep-sea trea-
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
38/44
Kennewick
39/44
St. Helens
38/45
40/45
39/47
39/49
40/46
40/46
Condon
TONIGHT
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
Cloudy with a
shower
A couple of
showers
Mostly cloudy
A chance for a
fl urry
42 26
32 11
27 15
Eugene
0
1
0
40/47
44 24
36 14
33 24
0
2
1
31 41 28
La Grande
35 41 34
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
2
0
0
2
32 38 30
Comfort Index™
0
32 11
28 23
0
0
0
ALMANAC
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Thursday
Low Thursday
High: 91°
Low: -9°
Wettest: 1.17”
35°
18°
36°
24°
36°
30°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Thursday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
Trace
0.06
0.26
5.07
8.47
0.01
0.11
0.62
10.09
16.14
0.08
0.80
1.23
22.84
23.41
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
HAY INFORMATION SUNDAY
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
45%
S at 6 to 12 mph
0.0
0.05
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Friday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
Florence
0% of capacity
18% of capacity
15% of capacity
12% of capacity
12% of capacity
10% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Thursday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
1150 cfs
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
0 cfs
Burnt River near Unity
14 cfs
Umatilla River near Gibbon
251 cfs
Minam River at Minam
143 cfs
Powder River near Richland
18 cfs
Zapata, Texas
Escourt Station, Maine
New Orleans, La.
OREGON
High: 49°
Low: 18°
Wettest: 0.46”
Brookings
Baker City
Tillamook
WEATHER HISTORY
On Dec. 11, 1992, a powerful storm
brought over 30 inches of snow to parts of
central Pennsylvania. Wind gusts topped
85 mph in Wildwood, N.J., and hurricane-
force wind gusts occurred in Central Park.
SUN & MOON
SAT.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
SUN.
7:22 a.m. 7:23 a.m.
4:09 p.m.
4:10 p.m.
12:53 p.m.
1:12 p.m.
none 12:48 a.m.
MOON PHASES
Full
Dec 18
Last
Dec 26
New
Jan 2
First
Jan 9
37/43
42/48
30/40
Beaver Marsh
27/38
Roseburg
Powers
Brothers
37/44
Coos Bay
41/48
Burns
Jordan Valley
33/40
Paisley
30/43
Frenchglen
35/43
Klamath Falls
30/40
Hi/Lo/W
44/35/sh
44/34/c
47/39/c
47/42/sh
41/30/c
47/38/sh
46/35/sh
40/36/r
40/29/c
47/36/sh
53/39/c
47/30/r
44/36/r
43/37/sh
38/31/sn
54/37/c
40/29/sn
40/28/c
Hi/Lo/W
43/34/r
40/24/r
51/35/c
45/36/r
47/22/sh
42/33/r
45/31/r
44/35/r
46/22/sh
45/33/r
47/35/r
45/27/r
48/35/sh
49/27/c
43/28/sn
46/34/r
39/21/sn
41/18/c
Grand View
Arock
34/51
37/46
Lakeview
29/40
McDermitt
33/43
RECREATION FORECAST SUNDAY
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
Diamond
34/43
35/44
Shown is Sunday’s weather. Temperatures are Saturday night’s lows and Sunday’s highs.
MON.
Boise
37/47
Fields
38/41
SUN.
37/46
Silver Lake
30/37
Medford
Brookings
Juntura
32/41
41/47
42/47
Ontario
38/48
28/41
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Huntington
32/41
34/44
Oakridge
33/40
34/41
Seneca
Bend
Elkton
THURSDAY EXTREMES
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
33/47
Sisters
Council
31/41
John Day
33/46
41/47
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.
32/40
Baker City
Redmond
39/46
42/48
Halfway
Granite
31/36
36/44
41/46
41/49
45 27
0
Corvallis
33/44
37/46
Newport
Enterprise
32/38
35/41
Monument
38/47
Idanha
Salem
Rain and drizzle
Comfort Index™
Elgin
34/40
La Grande
36/44
Maupin
Baker City
39/48
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
40/46
39/43
Hood River
39/49
TIllamook
Lewiston
Walla Walla
44/54
Vancouver
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
43/32/r
44/38/r
39/31/c
41/36/sh
46/37/sh
42/36/sh
48/38/c
52/37/c
49/35/r
46/39/sh
48/41/r
47/34/c
48/41/sh
46/40/sh
38/27/c
49/36/sh
37/32/c
48/38/c
Hi/Lo/W
42/35/c
45/36/r
45/22/sh
42/31/r
43/35/r
43/35/r
54/38/sh
47/33/r
53/31/r
45/36/r
42/32/r
44/21/r
45/32/r
45/35/r
40/30/sh
45/31/r
45/20/sh
48/34/sh
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
Snow, up to 1”
Intermittent snow
21
17
36
31
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Snow and sleet
Rain and drizzle
29
27
41
37
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Snow, 1-3”
Snow, 1-3”
23
22
35
29
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
A little p.m. snow
Rain and drizzle
38
31
45
36
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Morning snow, 1-3”
Cloudy, a shower
41
28
41
34