Grasping the viper

Well, it's just completely gone now. Whatever has happened? A whole blog posting meticulously made yesterday which I had been just saving, all ready to upload this morning, since our internet here doesn't function well in the evening, has just completely vanished, whoosh!  So does this mean part of my own personal history has been lost?  Yes, at least as documented for the last day or 2, because I can't even remember what has happened now, right here in my own life.  

Backtracking to actually revive the lost post has proved to be simply impossible. Memory speak!  I've tried every which way. This would not have happened if I had been writing on actual paper, as that paper would still be here, with my own words still written on it now. Cave drawings made many thousands of years ago even speak to us now.  A computer document is much less reliable.  It must be uploaded and posted on the internet to even survive. My blog posts from 2009 are still here, so that's reassuring. How long will they last? Probably not as long as the cave messages still visible today.

Since the title of the lost post still remains, we'll just have to start there, though a small chunk of my personal history is now lost forever. Will anyone really care? Does it really even matter? Yes, it does matter to me, with my memory now fading day by day.  That's one reason I write this blog, to just jog my own memory, as I've actually lived quite an interesting and unusual life, some of it recounted in my books. Since my memory is fading now, it's best to write everything down, so as to be able to go back to remember it myself.   

So what does the blog title, still here from yesterday, actually mean? 

Hervé Bazin Novel, originally published in French as Vipère au poing in 1948 and translated into English as Grasping the Viper, is a semi-autobiographical first novel by French author Hervé Bazin, making a dark, fierce condemnation of an abusive, tyrannical mother and a stifling family life. 

• Grasping the Viper | Herve BAZIN

  BAZIN, Herve.

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Here now is another sort of viper, our erstwhile and current president, chosen by a majority of Americans, though some now regret their vote.  Many US citizens, including me, though I've never voted for him myself, are now awaiting anxiously for Donald Trump's upcoming retirement.  Only a year and a few months are left to go.

Are we all going to make it? 

Trump says his proposed arch will include a military complex housing drones and snipers

Does our nation's capital really need such an arch?  Probably not. It would just obscure the view and become a target of attack. But Donald Trump says he really, really wants it, no matter what anyone else  thinks.

France 24

Inside Trump’s secret deals paying foreign governments to take unwanted deportees

The U.S. has pledged at least $410 million to expel migrants to at least 31 countries where they have no previous connection, internal records show.

Flight to Ghana - Expelled From the US to a Country They’d Never Been to.

Deported to a country that rejects them. ‘I had never heard of Eswatini.'  

South Sudan, where I have actually traveled, is considered a perilous destination now for deportees, though many are still being sent there. I never felt threatened there myself on a mission some decades ago.  My belongings, including a purse containing American money, were left unattended there all day in a wide open tent, with nothing ever being touched.

Here I was back in South Sudan, where the lady in orange seen below took me by the hand to guide me around everywhere. 

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The Wolf Conservation Center is still looking for donors to help preserve wolves, including the red wolves featured in its current campaign. Wolves are close cousins and forebears of our very own pet dogs. 

Gun owners should never shoot a wolf because wolves are actually beneficial  Nor should most Americans even possess guns, as guns are such a danger to us all, not just to wolves. The National Rifle Association is finally losing its clout. And hunting is losing its appeal.  So let's not shoot any more wild animals at all. 

Hunter charged with manslaughter in shooting of woman he mistook for a deer: Police

Neither humans, wolves, nor deer should be killed with guns anymore, as all have a right to go on living. Nor do guns ever belong in ordinary hands, as 99% of the time, guns prove quite harmful to their owners and to their families as well. Guns are really not protective at all. just the opposite.  This is obvious from just looking at the numbers in similar nations with strict gun controls, as has been discussed here before.  The NRA's doctrine is outmoded if it was ever valid at all. 

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A new message has just come in now from Wendy,  a friend I'd once stayed with in La Esperanza, a high altitude city in Honduras. There in the winter months, folks need to bundle up as shown in the photo, as homes there have no heat.  A few do have woodstoves inside for both cooking and heat, as was common in our own country over a century ago.

Wendy says their daughter is now graduating from high school and their son is studying medicine in Tegucigalpa, the capital.  Her husband Luis spends weekdays working with the Red Cross, also there in the capital, coming home only on weekends. Wendy herself is a nurse at the local hospital, delivering babies, assisting with surgeries, setting bones, and suturing wounds.  They are a family so dear to my heart. Below is a message from Wendy.  I am really missing them now. 

Hola Dona Barbara, 

Que gusto saludarle.

Estamos bien,  Alexandra esta por graduarse, Elian ya en su segundo año de universidad, el estudia medicina.

Luis siempre en tegus con cruz roja y yo aqui en el hospital 

Entiendo que le es dificil viajar 

Nos da mucho gusto saber de usted 

Un abrazo, Wendy

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Here is another message in Spanish, so get out your Google translator, this one coming from an immigrant from Cuba. He is worried about the economic situation in his home country.  He is not a supporter of our current president nor of the Iran war.

Buenas tardes Barbara. Espero que este muy bien. Usted nunca me habla sobre su salud. 

Está muy bueno y muy bien escrito todo lo que ha dicho sobre Donald Trump. Sobretodo que necesitamos un Candidato Democrata bien Fuerte para las próximas elecciones. Sería algo Formidable.Espero que en este País vean el error de la guerra contra Iran.

El error de dejar a varios Países, como a Cuba, sin recursos  para sobrevivir, bloqueando el suministro de energía y economía. En mi país mueren muchas personas por falta de Hopitales (están cerrando) falta de medicamento, higiene, alimentos. No tienen combustible para las ambulancias.

I don't know what kind of bird this is, but it's really quite colorful. If anyone can identify it, kindly tell us what it is.