My Portfolio

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Nairobi Bombing in 1998   Many years have passed since Al Qaida pulled off the attempted bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.  They didn’t manage to bring down the embassy building but they did...

On the road…again! Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek  A to Z Word Potpourri   The Chronicles of a Footloose Forester were compiled over a number of years, one story at a time. Events, observations, encounters, and episodes were the ingredients in the mix that got filed into his...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Virtual Trekking With Google Earth   When Google, Inc. changed their policy in December of 2015 in regard to the open use of satellite photos within their Google Earth computer program, it opened the floodgates for...

On the road… again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek  Cracking the Lilly Fuchsia Case   Youthful CSI investigator Jaelyn (Mushroom) Hunt(er) lived the CSI credo of following the evidence. Those essentials are: observe the evidence; gather it up; display it during an initial examination; secure it in a...

I should warn you from the start that this story is more about thoughts and feelings about the sudden changes I face in 2015.  The first week in January was like most any other week in the middle of a Northwest winter.  It was dreary, cold, and rainy.  I had been...

On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   An Indelicate Subject   Sometimes it takes the stimulus of an ignorant post or meme on the Internet to finally push the Footloose Forester over the edge.  As repugnant and as repulsive as the subject matter is, he thinks...

Acer rubrum To Zyzyphus jujubaEssays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   The Seagulls And The Clams   Our friend Thanh Mahoney related an amusing story to us about one of those “Truth is Stranger Than Fiction” events that might have seemed bizarre when it unfolded, but is...

Acer rubrum To Zyzyphus jujubaEssays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   A Shared Legacy   It is my privilege to contribute a legacy story about a man long dead, for the benefit of a nephew who was born long after his uncle died; and for the man's...

On the road… again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   The Titanic Was Only 2 ½ Miles Away   Who would say such a thing, unless they were on the ocean, in a ship?  After all, the Titanic still lies silently at a depth of 12,500 feet on...

On the road …again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   On Getting Arrested   This chronicle comes so many years after the fact, that the Footloose Forester was not sure that he would ever write it into his memoirs.  At the time, and for many years afterward, he...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek  Smelly Dog Stories   Writing a story about his sweet, sweet Violet has been a most difficult challenge because the Footloose Forester was not going to be satisfied with a simple story about his dog; or a...

On the road…again!Afghanistan to Zambia       Chronicles of a Footloose Forester        By Dick Pellek    C is Cape Verde A three-year sojourn to the windblown islands of Cape Verde came shortly after a 20-word telegram of a job offer was accepted by telephone, and the subsequent packing...

  On the road …again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   The Rhine Freezes Over   There are times when you and those around you are not truly appreciative of the things and events in your midst.  As a soldier in Germany during the early 1960s, the Footloose...

A warm light to Gods' love

Back in the '30s a highlight to the summer for my mother and her sisters was visiting their Aunt Beulah, who lived with her family in Southwest Virginia in the village of Mud Fork near the West Virginia border.  To reach Mud Fork they would take the train from Roanoke, about...

Sorting through family papers recently, I came across two separate newspaper clippings that described my parent’s wedding in 1949. I was first struck by how detailed the reports were, in contrast to what might get into the newspaper these days. Secondly I was impressed that both articles, apparently by different people,...

We’re going under the water now; I’ve got you.”  The words "I've got you" seemed a bit superfluous, the little girl was clinging to me, her swimming iunstructor, like a leech. She began protesting—loudly. “That’s good,” I commented. “But when you’re  underwater, you’ll need to close your mouth. You can cry as much...

On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Aroma Therapy   About a decade ago, the hip, the yuppies, and the avant-garde community came up with the commercially salable idea of aromatherapy.  Most big shopping malls in major cities now have at least one kiosk or boutique...

  Growing up with two older sisters and a younger brother, each about two years apart, I longed to gain entry into ‘the big girls club.’ My brother, Kevin, was in a club – and room—of his own.  We three sisters shared a room, although I was a bit isolated on...

    MILESTONES--or maybe Highlights?   GLASGOW, LANARKSHIRE, SCOTLAND   when we moved into our very own house (even a new one) in Drumchapel and I spied a friend outside when I fell in love with a cylindrical satin-wood post-box, my favorite toy when I played my first real song on the...