My Portfolio

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By 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...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek    The Parody Defense   Only once in a while does the forgotten, third-rate would-be crafter of parody who calls himself the Footloose Forester get a response to his missives. He would prefer kudos but, alas, when the infrequent...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek     Sophistry as a Conman’s Burglar Tool   As much as I dislike lies, exaggerations, and fanciful tales that morph into urban legends, the people who use them on a regular basis and know that they work on...

On the road…again!!! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Dr. Ben Stout Was My Kind of Guy It is true that having a receptive mood is one of the conditions that is required for the Footloose Forester to even draft a chronicle.  If something inside...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Smoking or Non-Smoking? Many moons have risen and set since the last time that the Footloose Forester was in the mood to write a chronicle that belongs in the Humor genre, with an unstated theme of “you just...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   The Horrors of War   Many military men and women who return from war are reluctant to talk about it but there have been enough stories and brief flashes of graphic descriptions that have leaked out or escaped...

  On the road…again!!! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek     Circuit Rider   The flashes of memory that have heretofore been confined to the Chronicles of a Footloose Forester are getting pretty hard to handle as potentially interesting stories.  This one is quite tentative...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek    Back to Tan Son Nhut, in a Dream   Another dream, another chronicle eeked out about those unforgettable years during the Viet Nam War.  The ten days that Footloose Forester spent sleeping under his desk at Tan Son...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   We Have Flea Markets, Viet Nam Had Black Markets   Sometimes when we are looking for something we might like to have in our homes or workshop, we venture out to the flea market to see what they...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester B y Dick Pellek    Pozzolana   Essays of the dream-induced variety are the hardest to compose, perhaps why the hours of fitful sleep are so often interjected with bits of reverie. Call them scraps, figments, bits, or vague ideas but there...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek    Cortana and Artificial Intelligence Corresponding with others through computer-based social media should be easier these days, thanks to artificial intelligence aids like text and voice personal digital assistants named Siri [Apple], Alexa [Amazon], and Cortana [Microsoft].  Ask them...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek     Charlie Was Hit With Machine Gun Fire   Charlie was happy to show you his busted arm and the .50 caliber slug from that machine gun that left him with a permanent scar.  He was also happy...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Self-effacement Isn’t Weakness (For a kid who thinks he can)   If you think you are beaten, you are; If you think you dare not, you don't. If you'd like to win, but think you can't It's almost...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek     Agent Orange Returns   The haunting memories of the Viet Nam War come back in short flashes on some days and in long dreams on some nights.  Many mysteries abound about how and why some things came...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Hawaiian Talk Story When a Quora .com  question presumably submitted by a grammar school student was posed about how we could determine the texture of a soil, the Footloose Forester decided to answer the question with a little...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   He Was Not Forgotten As the guest speaker at church was announcing the upcoming hunting event sponsored for wounded veterans, she described one or two of them who had lost limbs during military service, yet found a way...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   If You Ever Go Across the Sea to Java   “If you ever go across the sea to Ireland,” the plaintive words of an old but enchanting melody begin. The haunting Irish melody forms your thoughts into dreams...

    Acer rubrum To Zyzyphus jujuba Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Environmental Disasters For much of the last 30 years, the issue of the environment has become a political football, with political parties lining up on opposite sides of that football.  That...

Acer rubrum To Zyzyphus jujuba Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek    Rain Shadows and Rainforests   On the one hand, you have those who believe in global warming; and on the other side of the divide are those who are currently labeled as climate...

Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Are You Bragging Or Complaining?    This chronicle is for you, Red Lee.  You are in the center of that mental photograph that flashes in my mind, since that day in early autumn of 1955 when you responded...