On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Virtual Flight Around A Volcano   Foresters rely on more than their feet. A few foresters have more experience in helicopters than most professionals outside of the military services. This Footloose Forester certainly does. One memorable...

Since November 1974, my primary occupation has been as a court reporter utilizing a variety of Stenograph Corporation's stenotype machines starting with the then modern $300 manual machine and an IBM Selectric typewriter that cost $500. That, along with a business license, was all it took to break into the field,...

Thought that title would draw you in.... December 23... my birthday...through the years it has had its ups and downs.  Being so close to Christmas it is nice because everyone is in a festive mood and homes are decorated with colorful lights.  But it is bad too, because everyone is broke....

Do you believe in miracles and if so, have you ever witnessed one? Describe. WOW ; You guy’s keep coming up with tough ones. Gee in 1979 after my first wife died in childbirth leaving me with a six year old and a three year old son’s to take care of...

....My life has been something like a" card game" you do the best you can with the cards you are dealt. While married, I worked as an Electrician and also studied to get an Engineering Degree. I was inspired by my Department Manager who set up the interviews with a College. My wife,...

On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek Haiti in Tears The Footloose Forester knows there are plenty of times when emotions seeped out from his subconscious to the daylight of his true nature. Sometimes in the past, he challenged danger to prove to...

Well, in a way, yes! In the story about my brother and I flipping a car, I think it's on his profile Tyler Cormier and he tells a great story about it, we ended our flipping trip by slamming up against a large pine tree on the driver's side door where...

God does not forsake his children whether the children entered this earth years ago or recently. We read of biblical times when Christ was on the earth and performed miracles like healing the sick, the blind, the crippled, feeding thousands with only 2 loaves of bread and 5 fish, walking on...

This week's prompt is: Do you believe in miracles and if so, have you ever witnessed one? Describe.  Miracle: "An extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs”.   I think if you believe in a divine being, you are likely to believe in miracles.  If not, you might be more...

Catheriine and I raised eight children. Problems did not escape us. Our seventh child, a young boy (Gerard)  passed away at age fourteen from a Staphylococcal infection which was supposed to be easily cured  with Antibiotics. While the explantions were thin, we could never understand the failure. Some forty years later we received our...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek Birthday Challenge When he was a teenager, the future Footloose Foreste r saw a small graph in a local newspaper that showed how physical capability peaked in adolescence, then continued on a plateau until age 55, then...

I, like so many other people, am going to start fresh commitments, or renew old ones, for the start of this new year.  My hope is to concentrate on goals that will better myself, and renew my commitment to learn more about my ancestors and who they really were through personal...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Blue Rose of Kenya Young Lucy Pellek was given the privilege of naming our pets. She grew up chasing Dolie around our house in Cape Verde, so was comfortable with the idea of having a dog...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   The Tiger and The Bear   Lots of couples have nicknames for one another, and Footloose Forester and his soul mate were among that group. Thu’s mother was known by some people as Tiger Dao, and...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester B y Dick Pellek   Faithful Four-Footed Friends in Saigon   Humans tend to crowd out unpleasant thoughts and retain the memories of the happy times in their lives. Living in a war zone in Viet Nam for almost three...

Spend 36 years in “The Vineyards of Education” and unless you were somehow completely insensible to your surroundings you will have a truckload of incidents, some humorous, others poignant, and a few (although too many) tragic, lurking in your memory.   I began my career in September of 1957 as a band...

The question " What do I know about the faith of my grandparents?" is a powerful question. I have asked myself many times, "Can I live up to the legacy of the faith they exhibited?" "Can I pass to my future generations an example of the faith that they showed in...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   For the Birds Just when he thought he had seen everything at his bird feeders outside the rear bedroom window, the Footloose Forester yesterday got a treat that he would never have predicted. The previous morning...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Magic Mushrooms   My father told me about wild mushrooms way back, but it was a Hungarian immigrant in New Jersey who convinced me that if you know what to look for, you need not...

Sometimes unexpected joys come to us that are so far from being anticipated that they completely blindside us. I suspect God might specialize in using our children to bless us in this manner. During our son Daniel's growing up years I frequently put on my best (admittedly awful) British accent by...