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On the road...again!!!Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek    This Batter Wears a Sombrero(Debate With Self)   An unrequited debate, nay; an unstated debate that popped up in last night’s dream is all about softball.  More specifically, it is about unlimited-arc, slow-pitch softball.  Not many people relate...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Coffee Plants, Coffee Cherries, Coffee Berries, Coffee Beans, Coffee Makers, and Coffee Cups   The whole world knows something about coffee.  Many millions of people drink it every day.  A few million are involved in growing it, hundreds of thousands...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek     Adventures in Surveying   Another dream, another chronicle about disparate events in the past that somehow got stitched together in the dream itself.  This chronicle combines a bit of forestry field work, a bit of practical applications of things...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   The Resentments Dream   The disjointed catalogue of resentments came back in a dream.  They were not invited but the snippets and the stories just showed up, one at a time.  Such is the capability of the human brain to...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek     Billfish Tournament   There he was in my dream, Tom Hanks.  He was representing Princeton in the Annual Ivy League Billfish Tournament.  That is to say, he was Princeton’s fisherman who was responsible for selecting the bait, baiting the...

On the road…again!!!Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek     Doing Wheelies in Lion Habitat   One vivid memory that never got a good jump start into a tasty chronicle took place in the Aberdares Region of Kenya over 25 years ago.  The long interim has more...

On the road…again!!!Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Slaloming Down the Volcanic Ash Scree Slope   The trek to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania was a once-in-a-lifetime bucket-list trip.  Although reaching the top is often hampered by deep snow, a few months of the...

  On the road…again! Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek      On Being An Observer   Every once in a while, the Footloose Forester (and everybody else) shows disappointment that something important that should have been recognized was not, something that should have been heard was not,...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Bridge, Not Too Far   For a number of years, the Footloose Forester had wanted to write a chronicle about the missionaries he has known.  There were plenty of them, spread out across the globe.  Any such chronicle was going...

On the road…again!!!Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Accidental Rock Hound   Another dream, another chronicle about those bits and pieces of reverie that bob up and down in the soup of memories.  The first ingredient in the soup of last night’s dream was the vision...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek     The Scariest Things Random thoughts of Africa came in a dream last night, so the Footloose Forester decided to stitch a few of them together in a chronicle that might be labeled The Scariest Things.  First and foremost, of...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, DreamsChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   The Cheetah at the Waterhole   As time passes, so also do some of the details of even favorite adventures.  The great fun trip to the Laikipia Plateau of Kenya in 1991 was one of them, and last night’s chat...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   You Remember Birdies and Eagles   One of the differences between daydreams and night time dreams is the simple proposition that daydreams are induced recollections and night time dreams are involuntary.  We may awaken to recall...

On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Slow Pitch Softball and Some Unanswered Questions   True sports fans may not pay much attention to such quaint pastimes as softball, especially the easy going variety of quasi-sport known as slow pitch softball.  But older ladies and gents...

On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Always An Amateur   Life can be so disheartening when you grow up without good looks, athletic ability, high intelligence, or with physical limitations.  Poor posture and annoying mannerisms also add to the handicaps that we may have and...

On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Working As A Career Sharing personal stories with family and friends about where we worked is an easy topic to open a conversation. Each of us has a treasure trove of stories locked away in our memory banks. The...

  On the road… again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Snackin’ On Crocodile At The Carnivore If and when you go on that safari to Africa, rest assured that you will get the chance to see African wildlife up close…real close.  You won’t need a camera with...

On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   The Serendipity Of Katherine’s Statue Serendipity has always been one of his favorite words. The dictionary definition of serendipity has a few variations; but in general, it means a pleasant, fortunate and unexpected discovery. Finding the wooden sculpture of...

On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   On Name Dropping   The Footloose Forester has been a practicing iconoclast for most of his adult life.  No, make that most of his entire life. As a teenager, he spent plenty of time musing about hypocrisy and the...

On the road…again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek  Adventures on the Laikipia Plateau Kenya   Going up-country in Kenya with a real adventurer was what Footloose Forester hoped all jobs would be like.  His friend agreed to the use of his full name and association openly, so the...