COFFEE BREAK B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2022 Pandemic marriage’s fi rst year leaves wife dreading a second I end it, the sooner the better? — HONEYMOON-LESS IN NEW JERSEY DEAR HONEYMOON-LESS: The pandemic has stressed many marriages, but with the quarantines relaxing there should be less pres- sure and confi nement. Has it helped? Whether your hot-tempered husband is capable of changing his behavior is something that may be revealed during the counseling. You didn’t mention how long the two of you have been seeing a ther- apist, but if it has been more than six months with no improvement, it’s fair to assume he isn’t likely to change, and the marriage should end. In the meantime, use the most pow- erful form of birth control you pos- sibly can so you don’t fi nd yourself pregnant and trapped in a marriage from which you cannot escape. DEAR ABBY: My mom is in a home for dementia patients, and Dad was living in their big house by himself. He couldn’t sell it until everything was settled with my mom. Because he was very lonely, I decided to let him move in with me. We agreed he would pay $320 a month. I needed the money and thought it was fair. My roommate pays $400 a month, but I was OK DEAR ABBY: My husband and I got married during the pandemic in a short ceremony. Our fi rst year of marriage has been less a honeymoon than a nightmare. He tends to be hot- headed. He fi ghts dirty with name- calling, which he had occasionally done previously, but since we’ve been living together, it happens more often. We are trying marriage coun- seling, but all of his temper tantrums and antics have made me see him in a diff erent, negative light. He’s now talking about growing our family. He can be very sweet and thoughtful, but I don’t even know if I still like him at this point. I’m also wondering if I’m just better alone because I like my space and time to myself. Maybe I’m set- tling with the current situation when there could be someone better out there. I know the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Is this something I need to give some time to see how it plays out, or should Come Check Out Our New Location & New Menu! with Dad paying less. When my sister found out, she was very upset that I was charging Dad. She had him move out that day, so now he sleeps at my brother’s and spends most of the day at his house. When I turned 18 and lived at home I paid rent, so I saw nothing wrong with it. Now I am an out- cast. No one talks to me except my dad, by phone. I am very depressed about this and feel suicidal. I suff er from anxiety and depression, see a therapist and have been on meds for years. Am I wrong, and how do I fi x this? — GOOD SON IN PENNSYLVANIA DEAR GOOD SON: If you haven’t done so already, talk about this with your therapist. It is very important that he or she knows you are having suicidal thoughts and that they persist. You did nothing “wrong.” Your father agreed to the arrangement, and he should have made that clear to your sister. She was wrong to interfere, and she seems to wield a disproportionate amount of power in your family. I can’t fi x that and neither can you, so you will have to fi nd ways of coping not only with your depres- sion but also with her. You have my sympathy. an attempt to exclude family mem- bers because their chromosomes are not the same as hers, this may simply have been an etiquette boo-boo. DEAR ABBY: I have been mar- ried for 35 years and have a recurring problem with no solution in sight. My wife sets frozen meat on the counter to thaw. She says she can’t count on thawing it in the fridge because it takes too long and inter- feres with her meal planning. Her mother has always done it this way, and no one has ever gotten sick. I try talking to her but it only ends up in a fi ght. Any suggestions would be appreciated. — RISKY IN ILLINOIS DEAR RISKY: The Food and Drug Administration has issued guidelines about food preparation because people have gotten very sick when it wasn’t done properly. Over the last 10 or 15 years, conditions in some of our slaughterhouses and agricultural operations have dete- riorated, and consumers have died because of it. Whether you can con- vince your wife to change her ways, I can’t predict. But you might be doing her a favor if you visit fda.gov and print out some information for her and your mother-in-law. Better to be safe than sorry. DEAR ABBY: My niece is get- ting married this spring, which has created a dilemma for my immediate family. When the save-the-date cards went out, she addressed them only to the women in the family. We thought it was a mistake at fi rst, but now the invitations have arrived, and they are also addressed to the women only. My husband and my son (her fi rst cousin) feel slighted. My son’s wife was invited, but she doesn’t know the bride at all. It seems the bride has a limited number of guests she can invite for the venue. She also has a large number of friends and the groom’s family attending. Out of respect for my son and my husband — and a son-in-law who was also excluded — we all will respond that we will not attend. I feel terrible not being able to see my niece walk down the aisle, but I’m not used to my spouse being ignored. Am I doing the right thing? — PUZ- ZLED IN FLORIDA DEAR PUZZLED: Before you refuse the wedding invitation, call your niece and ask if she is inten- tionally excluding the men. Because women make most of the social arrangements, she may not have real- ized that each guest’s name must appear on the invitation. Rather than New Family Friendly Location! New Menu! Bar Bites, Wood Stone Pizza and More! MON-TUES CLOSED WED-SAT 11-9 • SUN 11-7 1106 Adams Avenue Suite 100 • 541 663-9010 • tapthatgrowlers.com When your computer is in despair OUTSTANDING COMPUTER REPAIR Fast and Reliable MOBILE COMPUTER SUPPORT 215 Elm Street La Grande • (541) 963-5440 DALE BOGARDUS 541-297-5831 northwestfurnitureandmattress.com weather | Go to AccuWeather.com AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION Astoria Longview 49/54 Kennewick 50/56 St. Helens 48/58 TIllamook 37/48 36/41 47/56 47/56 Condon WED THU FRI SAT Cloudy Mostly cloudy Rain and drizzle Mostly cloudy Cloudy Salem 21 32 16 Comfort Index™ La Grande 0 29 44 30 Comfort Index™ 3 34 23 33 18 Eugene 2 1 0 42/56 39 25 39 22 36 24 1 3 3 1 40 20 35 26 4 4 3 4 ALMANAC TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin NATION (for the 48 contiguous states) High: 87° Low: -24° Wettest: 2.06” 32° 8° 38° 30° 39° 15° PRECIPITATION (inches) Sunday Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Normal year to date 0.00 0.27 0.22 0.27 0.22 0.00 0.82 0.53 0.82 0.53 0.00 2.77 1.01 2.77 1.01 AGRICULTURAL INFO. HAY INFORMATION WEDNESDAY Lowest relative humidity Afternoon wind Hours of sunshine Evapotranspiration 45% S at 8 to 16 mph 0.5 0.06 RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Monday) Phillips Reservoir Unity Reservoir Owyhee Reservoir McKay Reservoir Wallowa Lake Thief Valley Reservoir Powers 48/61 1% of capacity 23% of capacity 18% of capacity 22% of capacity 17% of capacity 22% of capacity STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Sunday) Grande Ronde at Troy 1770 cfs Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder 0 cfs Burnt River near Unity 14 cfs Umatilla River near Gibbon 359 cfs Minam River at Minam 217 cfs Powder River near Richland 46 cfs Brookings TUE. Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset WED. 7:30 a.m. 7:30 a.m. 4:31 p.m. 4:32 p.m. 12:16 p.m. 12:40 p.m. 1:53 a.m. 2:58 a.m. MOON PHASES Full Last New First Jan Mayfair 17 recliners Jan 25 and Jan offi 31 ce chairs Feb 8 Jordan Valley 27/46 Frenchglen Paisley 33/52 33/54 Klamath Falls 24/46 ENDS 27/38 Lakeview 21/43 McDermitt 27/46 RECREATION FORECAST WEDNESDAY THU. City Lewiston Longview Meacham Medford Newport Olympia Ontario Pasco Pendleton Portland Powers Redmond Roseburg Salem Spokane The Dalles Ukiah Walla Walla WED. THU. Hi/Lo/W 42/34/c 56/47/sh 39/26/c 50/38/c 53/46/c 54/47/sh 31/20/pc 40/29/c 53/34/c 56/43/c 61/48/c 52/33/c 54/43/c 55/43/c 40/31/c 41/35/c 46/28/c 45/33/c Hi/Lo/W 40/33/pc 52/42/r 39/24/c 52/35/c 50/41/r 52/43/r 33/22/c 43/28/pc 48/30/sh 53/39/r 57/42/r 49/29/sn 54/38/r 54/40/r 38/30/c 46/31/c 44/25/pc 45/32/c Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice JANUARY 17! Grand View Arock 23/42 27/44 REGIONAL CITIES OFFER Diamond 30/50 Fields 35/50 City Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W Astoria 54/46/r 50/42/r Bend 55/38/c 47/31/sn Boise 39/21/pc 37/25/pc Brookings 53/47/c 54/43/r Burns 39/21/c 41/18/pc Coos Bay 56/49/c 52/40/r Corvallis 54/41/c 52/40/r Council 35/21/pc 36/20/pc Elgin 40/21/c 38/25/c Eugene 56/42/c 53/41/r Hermiston 48/31/c 50/27/c Hood River 48/38/c 48/36/r Imnaha 45/37/c 46/34/pc John Day 48/34/c 43/33/pc Joseph 44/34/c 43/23/pc Kennewick 45/30/c 45/29/pc Klamath Falls 46/26/c 45/21/pc Lakeview 43/21/c 42/19/pc Boise 22/39 Shown is Wednesday’s weather. Temperatures are Tuesday night’s lows and Wednesday’s highs. WED. 24/40 Silver Lake 27/48 Medford 47/53 Juntura 21/39 40/55 Brookings Baker City SUN & MOON 41/54 Ontario 20/31 30/49 Chiloquin OREGON A siege of extreme cold began in the Dakotas on Jan. 11, 1936. Langdon, N.D., failed to reach zero all day. Readings remained below zero for the next 41 days. The extremes were associated with drought. Brothers Beaver Marsh Grants Pass Huntington 24/38 Burns 33/42 28/49 Roseburg 20/35 29/44 41/55 Oakridge 48/56 WEATHER HISTORY 35/48 Seneca 41/61 Coos Bay Weslaco, Texas Crosby, N.D. Clarksville, Tenn. High: 66° Low: 8° Wettest: none 35/52 Council 21/32 John Day Bend Elkton SUNDAY EXTREMES High Sunday Low Sunday 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. 24/39 37/54 43/57 40 22 21/34 Baker City Redmond 50/55 Halfway Granite 42/54 Newport 33 20 0 31 39 28 Comfort Index™ Enterprise 0 31/46 44/57 47/55 Corvallis Enterprise 29/44 31/39 Monument 38/53 Idanha 49/53 Baker City Elgin 30/40 La Grande 38/50 Maupin TONIGHT 36/45 Pendleton The Dalles Portland Newberg 37/42 Hood River 38/53 52/59 Lewiston Walla Walla 32/45 Vancouver 48/56 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022 ANTHONY LAKES PHILLIPS LAKE Mostly cloudy Mainly cloudy 35 27 35 21 MT. EMILY REC. BROWNLEE RES. Mostly cloudy Mostly cloudy 39 32 42 26 EAGLE CAP WILD. EMIGRANT ST. PARK Mostly cloudy Cloudy 33 25 41 30 WALLOWA LAKE MCKAY RESERVOIR Mostly cloudy Cloudy 44 34 56 36 THIEF VALLEY RES. RED BRIDGE ST. PARK Mostly cloudy Mostly cloudy 32 16 39 28 GIVE AND RECEIVE. Donate $50 or more to charity and get hundreds off.* Mayfair recliners ® and offi ce chairs Help others, then help yourself to $ 400 off Stressless recliners. See stores for details • Free Delivery • InStore Credit • 70 Store Buying Power • Decorating Assistance Stressless ® Mayfair shown in Paloma Vanilla 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 1520 ADAMS AVENUE LA GRANDE OREGON 97850