COFFEE BREAK
B8 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
THuRSDAY, MAY 12, 2022
Children aren’t told that great-grandma passed away
DEAR ABBY: My daugh-
ter-in-law, “Brooke,” lost her
grandfather five weeks ago. She
has chosen not to tell her 4- and
10-year-old kids about it. She has
ordered my husband, me and our
son not to mention it. The kids see
her grandmother at least once a
week, and she is not supposed to
tell them either.
I didn’t know the kids hadn’t
been told and I started to say
something at a family dinner. The
10-year-old heard me, and I got
shushed. I’m mad at the whole sit-
uation. Brooke refuses to tell them
“until she’s ready,” and I couldn’t
disagree more. I understand her
grief. I have lost grandparents and
parents. The services won’t be for
several weeks. I understand she
can’t deal with the loss yet, but
denying her kids the truth only
delays her grieving process and
also doesn’t allow them their time
to grieve and process.
Now Brooke is mad and
screaming and crying about it. I’m
trying to back off, but I’m angry
that her needs are being put first
and at being told I made a hor-
rible mistake by offering the love
and caring I thought they needed.
How can I repair the perceived
mistake I have made? — VEXED
IN VERMONT
DEAR VEXED: If you were
unaware that your DIL was trying
to shield her kids from the reality
of their great-grandfather’s death
when you spoke out, you did
nothing wrong. However, you
should have offered an apology to
her privately. Back off and lie low
until the funeral. Your DIL is not
herself right now. She needs time
to cool off and regain some per-
spective. It would be interesting
to know how your son feels about
the way she’s handling this. With
luck, he can smooth things over.
DEAR ABBY: When my hus-
band leaves town for a work trip
or a vacation, or if I’m out of town
for any period of time, we are sud-
denly in love again! We miss each
other like crazy and send loving
texts and exchange mushy phone
calls like we’re still newlyweds.
When he’s home and we’re
living life with jobs, kids, bills
and responsibilities, we are dis-
connected and distant. We
interact more as partners and
friends than romantic lovers.
We’ve been married for 21 years,
and it’s always been this way.
Does absence truly make the
heart grow fonder, or can we
stand each other only when we’re
not together? — PERPLEXED
IN TEXAS
DEAR PERPLEXED:
Absence doesn’t always make the
heart grow fonder, nor does it nec-
essarily drive a wedge between
a couple whose marriage has a
strong foundation. That when you
are apart you and your husband
feel the need for the romantic con-
nection that brought you together
tells me your marriage is strong
in spite of the responsibilities of
your daily lives. Have you con-
sidered treating yourselves to an
occasional date night, just the two
of you, away from the distractions
of the children? If you haven’t, I’ll
bet you would both enjoy it.
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
Goodwill find in Texas turns out to be ancient Roman bust
the history behind the
piece, which she found on
the floor beneath a table
at a Goodwill in Austin,
Texas.
Young reached a deal
to return the bust to Ger-
many with the help of an
attorney who specializes
in international art law,
Austin radio station KUT
reported. Terms of that
deal were confidential.
“But it was bittersweet
since I knew I couldn’t
keep or sell the (bust),”
she said. “Either way, I’m
glad I got to be a small
part of (its) long and com-
plicated history, and he
looked great in the house
while I had him.”
The Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO — A
marble bust that a Texas
woman bought for about
$35 from a Goodwill store
is temporarily on display
at a San Antonio museum
after experts determined it
was a centuries-old sculp-
ture missing from Ger-
many since World War II.
The bust, which art col-
lector Laura Young found
at Goodwill in 2018, once
belonged in the collec-
tion of King Ludwig I of
Bavaria, according to the
San Antonio Museum of
Art, which is temporarily
displaying the piece until
it is returned to Germany
next year.
The ancient Roman
bust dates to the first cen-
tury B.C. or first cen-
tury A.D. and historians
believe it may depict a
son of Pompey the Great,
who was defeated in civil
war by Julius Caesar,
the museum said. The
sculpture was last seen
in Aschaffenburg, Ger-
many, and experts believe
a soldier took the sculp-
ture and brought it to
the United States, the
museum said.
A Sotheby’s consultant
identified the work and it
was further authenticated,
the museum said.
“We are very pleased
that a piece of Bavarian
history that we thought
was lost has reappeared
and will soon be able to
return to its rightful loca-
tion,” said Bernd Sch-
reiber, president of the
Bavarian Administration
of State-Owned Palaces,
Gardens, and Lakes.
Young said there were
a few months of “intense
excitement” after learning
Maine close to
ridding license plates
of obscenities
PORTLAND, Maine —
The rackin’ frackin’ sas-
safrassin’ salty language
on hundreds of Maine
license plates is one step
closer to being removed
from the road.
Maine’s secretary of
state released draft rules
Thursday that would elim-
inate references to geni-
talia, sex acts and profan-
ities that proliferated after
the state severely loosened
language restrictions on
so-called vanity license
plates in 2015.
The rough and foul
language on the plates
led to a steady stream of
complaints.
It was all too much
even for a secretary of
state who previously
served as director of
American Civil Liber-
ties Union of Maine,
which has fought for First
Amendment rights to
freedom of expression.
“Incitement to vio-
San Antonio Museum of Art/The Associated Press
This undated photo shows a marble bust that a Texas woman bought for about $35 from a Goodwill
store that is temporarily on display at a San Antonio museum after experts determined it was a
centuries-old sculpture missing from Germany since World War II. The bust, which art collector Laura
Young found at Goodwill in 2018, once belonged in the collection of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, according
to the San Antonio Museum of Art, which is temporarily displaying the piece until it is returned to
Germany next year.
— all of which unfor-
tunately can be seen on
Maine registration plates
today — are all directly
lence, profanity, ethnic,
racial, religious, or other
slurs, or reference to
illegal or criminal activity
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
contrary to the public
interest,” Secretary of
State Shenna Bellows said
in a statement.
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
41/55
Kennewick
38/55
St. Helens
40/57
Hood River
39/60
36/55
Condon
41/62
42/57
FRI
SAT
SUN
MON
A passing
shower or two
Some sun, then
clouds
Cloudy, a
shower or two
A stray p.m.
t-storm
Low clouds
63 43
71 45
64 39
Eugene
3
9
9
38/59
63 44
69 48
64 42
7
10
9
La Grande
34 57 47
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
5
0
9
31 52 42
Comfort Index™
0
62 41
8
9
8
3
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Tuesday
Low Tuesday
High: 103°
Childress, Texas
Low: 5°
West Yellowstone, Mont.
Wettest: 1.38”
Canadian, Texas
51°
25°
55°
28°
57°
28°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
0.00
0.57
0.41
2.50
3.29
0.00
0.66
0.73
4.44
7.18
0.00
1.88
0.78
11.75
11.07
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
HAY INFORMATION FRIDAY
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
45%
WSW at 6 to 12 mph
0.6
0.12
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Wednesday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
45/59
12% of capacity
94% of capacity
46% of capacity
99% of capacity
52% of capacity
101% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Tuesday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
7340 cfs
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
96 cfs
Burnt River near Unity
6 cfs
Umatilla River near Gibbon
632 cfs
Minam River at Minam
947 cfs
Powder River near Richland
112 cfs
OREGON
High: 65°
Low: 19°
Wettest: 0.30”
Hermiston
Prineville
Roseburg
A drought helped to cause major dust
storms in the Midwest during the 1930s.
On May 12, 1934, wind-blown dust dark-
ened the sky as far east as the Atlantic
coast.
SUN & MOON
THU.
5:26 a.m.
8:12 p.m.
4:13 p.m.
3:58 a.m.
FRI.
5:25 a.m.
8:13 p.m.
5:28 p.m.
4:18 a.m.
MOON PHASES
Full
May 15
Last
New
May 22 May 30
Beaver Marsh
45/61
First
Jun 7
Burns
Jordan Valley
Paisley
Frenchglen
37/60
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
55/48/sh
56/46/r
61/49/c
55/50/r
59/42/pc
54/52/r
55/50/r
57/46/pc
55/43/pc
59/52/r
63/52/pc
60/47/r
58/48/pc
55/48/pc
51/40/c
65/52/pc
56/41/c
58/43/c
Hi/Lo/W
58/50/r
70/48/c
69/51/pc
59/51/sh
66/43/r
61/49/sh
62/51/c
64/44/r
63/44/sh
66/51/c
73/53/c
68/50/r
66/47/c
65/44/sh
57/45/c
75/54/pc
68/42/pc
66/41/pc
Grand View
Arock
41/63
36/62
37/64
Klamath Falls
37/56
Lakeview
35/58
McDermitt
Shown is Friday’s weather. Temperatures are Thursday night’s lows and Friday’s highs.
SAT.
Diamond
36/58
Fields
46/62
FRI.
Boise
36/57
38/58
38/54
Medford
Brookings
39/62
43/61
47/62
47/55
Juntura
34/59
Silver Lake
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Ontario
43/66
36/55
33/61
RECREATION FORECAST FRIDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
WEATHER HISTORY
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
34/54
35/49
Roseburg
Powers
Brothers
40/59
Coos Bay
Huntington
32/52
34/56
Oakridge
42/57
39/59
Seneca
Bend
Elkton
TUESDAY EXTREMES
ALMANAC
Tuesday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
Florence
Council
34/57
36/55
32/56
40/54
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.
31/48
John Day
31/59
Sisters
40/60
72 47
37/58
Baker City
Redmond
39/54
Halfway
Granite
35/55
Newport
40/53
59 42
35/58
34/54
38/59
Corvallis
Enterprise
31/52
34/57
Monument
38/60
Idanha
Salem
TONIGHT
0
33/55
La Grande
35/55
Maupin
Comfort Index™
Elgin
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
41/59
39/57
38/58
TIllamook
34 57 42
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Walla Walla
44/65
Vancouver
38/57
38/56
Baker City
It has been a delicate
balancing act.
A federal judge ruled
in 2020 that California
couldn’t enforce a ban
on vanity license plates
it considers “offensive to
good taste and decency.”
So Maine’s rules had to
be narrowly tailored.
The draft rules would
prohibit license plates that
falsely suggest an associ-
ation with a government
agency; encourage vio-
lence or unlawful activ-
ities; attack race or reli-
gion; suggest genitalia or
sex acts; or represent pro-
fane or obscene language.
A public hearing is sched-
uled later this month.
There would be a
mechanism for a motorist
to appeal if a vanity plate
was rejected because of
objectionable language.
Things quickly got out
of control when the state
all but dropped its review
process in 2015 after pre-
viously banning “obscene,
contemptuous, profane or
prejudicial” messages on
license plates.
Cathie Curtis, deputy
secretary of state over-
seeing the Bureau of
Motor Vehicles, said the
coarse and offensive lan-
guage that has since
cropped up routinely elic-
ited complaints.
Last year, the Maine
Legislature adopted a bill
restoring a review, and
the governor signed it into
law.
In Maine, there are
about 121,000 vanity
license plates on the roads
in a state with about 1.3
million residents. It’s
unclear how many of them
could be removed; state
officials previously esti-
mated hundreds.
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
FRI.
SAT.
Hi/Lo/W
59/48/sh
55/46/pc
54/46/pc
62/52/r
53/49/sh
56/44/pc
66/50/pc
63/50/pc
58/52/pc
57/50/sh
59/53/r
59/47/c
61/52/r
59/53/r
51/40/sh
62/49/pc
51/46/pc
57/49/pc
Hi/Lo/W
65/49/sh
63/53/r
62/45/sh
74/52/c
56/49/r
62/50/r
72/46/c
73/51/c
69/50/c
65/54/r
64/51/c
70/45/c
71/52/c
63/53/r
54/43/c
70/53/c
62/44/sh
65/49/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
Very cold
Inc. clouds
33
31
51
43
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Cold
Partly sunny
41
40
58
50
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Afternoon fl urries
Inc. clouds
36
33
48
42
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Mostly cloudy
Becoming cloudy
51
40
59
51
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Inc. clouds
Inc. clouds
57
42
57
47