F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Leisure

Wendy’s Coffeehouse Interview Update #2

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Turns out this interview is a podcast recording that will be available on the Empower Radio website, under Wendy Garrett’s Conscious Living segment.

We are still “in the midst” of things! We were about halfway in, joking about Wendy’s doppelgänger incident with her dogs…playfully dissing her doppelgänger…and all of a sudden, I’m just hearing white noise! No connectivity…so…they’re troubleshooting and trying to figure out what

(…doppelgänger…)

went wrong. I don’t know about Wendy…but I like her doppelgänger. Think she’s a pretty cool person, even if she doesn’t own dogs. And I know Wendy never intended to insult her Better Half.

No, not at all.

It was all just “radio talk”…that’s all it was…filling dead air so we have interesting stuff for people to hear…and she

(doppelganger)

has apologized, so she knows the error of her ways….

So let’s get this show back on the air!

Later followup: nope, didn’t happen! Some gnarly Ghost in the Machine took us down hard, so we’re rescheduling!

Stay tuned!

The B-17 “Madras Maiden”

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The B-17 “Madras Maiden” (© F. P. Dorchak, 2017)
The B-17 “Madras Maiden” (© F. P. Dorchak, 2017)

Last weekend the Madras Maiden, an actual B-17 Flying Fortress that flew in WWII, made a stop at our town and flew our skies. A couple times it flew directly over our home. I did manage to capture a few photos, but this is the best of them, and the others really aren’t much different.

It is quite a sight, hearing and watching this Flying Fortress grace the skies again. Granted, it is a flat-out war machine, it’s very raison d’être was to fight and destroy, but it is still a machine of the air, and I am fascinated by it. I wish we didn’t need things like these in our existence, but I can still appreciate their “aircraftness” in and of themselves.

This is the link to the Liberty Foundation’s website. I’d discovered them while writing my short story, “Tail Gunner,” and visited the Liberty Belle, another B-17 that had made a stop to our town. I’ve not gone up in either of these, but had climbed around inside the Liberty Belle. The Liberty Belle ended up going down in flames, and that is why the Liberty Foundation now flies the Madras Maiden.

Garden of the Gods Hike

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Garden of the Gods Park, Colorado Springs, CO (© F. P. Dorchak 2017)
Garden of the Gods Park, Colorado Springs, CO (© F. P. Dorchak 2017)

I took a beautiful hike through Garden of the Gods (GoG) park yesterday evening, after my gym workout. I was going to stay and do my cardio at the gym, by my wife, whom I met at the gym, suggested I take a break from all my gnarly shit and just enjoy the evening–and I’m glad I did (sometimes I need her to tell me to take a goddamned break…). I took my Nikon with me and got some really cool shots! I spent about an hour-and-a-half hiking through it, and it was great—fewer people. Better shots without people in them—though one woman, admittedly, would have made an incredible shot, but the moment passed as soon as it’d presented itself. She had been wearing an incredibly bright, radiant blue one-piece tube-skirt (or whatever they’re called) and was walking toward me in the middle of a narrow section of red rocks, her blonde head down. It was so incongruous! Contrasting! It would have made a fantastic shot! But, I couldn’t get the camera up quick enough, and the moment had passed. You couldn’t see her face, which made it even better.

Anyway, I took my favorite hike, which is around the west side of the park, on the single track. It traverses all kinds of rocky terrain and goes up and down. I love it. Love the rocks, love the squirreliness of the trail. The view. Saw a Scrub Jay (I think they’re called), a rabbit, and a whole herd of some 11 or 12 deer. I’ll try to post some of the images where I can, but I’m using new software (Adobe Lightroom) and there’s a bit of a learning curve. I may just try to upload a few onto Facebook. That’s probably the easiest thing to do. We’ll see. I’m really behind on my short story work, so….

 

Wind and Snow

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Wind and Snow (© F. P. Dorchak, Feb 23, 2017)
Wind and Snow (© F. P. Dorchak, Feb 23, 2017)

Yesterday we had respite from the fifty-, sixty-, and seventy-degree weather we’ve been having—it actually snowed! And it had come down pretty hard for a while there. Where I was at the time, north of Colorado Springs, we even had some accumulation. It was pretty fricking cool, pardon the pun.

As I later drove down I-25, I couldn’t keep my attention away from Pikes Peak. It was—simply stated—majestic!

Snow was being blown off the ridges of the Front Range and were beautifully backlit!

Damn it, but I hadn’t my camera with me, so I kept hoping the majesty that was Pikes Peak would remain to some degree (again with the puns…) so I could capture it.

I got home, grabbed my camera, lenses, and tripod, and rushed outside.

Below are some shots I managed to capture. I used UV and polarizing filters and my 18-55mm and 70-300mm lenses. Did a couple black & white images. All files are compressed using Coral PaintShop Pro X7.

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Frozen Branches

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Frozen Branches (© F. P. Dorchak, Feb 2, 2017)
Frozen Branches (© F. P. Dorchak, Feb 2, 2017)

Thursday and Friday of last week we had a bit of an ice storm…in that I don’t know if it was actually termed an “ice storm,” but we had everything coated in a layer of frost and/or ice—and it was beautiful! Since I am a fan of taking shots of branches, I thought “Frozen Branches” would be a great compliment to my previous post!

Donnelly’s Corners, July 14, 2015
Know it. Love it. Donnelly’s Corners Soft Ice Cream Flavor Schedule, 2015
Donnelly’s Corners is a Very Special Place. Upstate New York Registry of Very Special Places, July, 2015.

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Night Driving

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Night Driving (© F. P. Dorchak, January 28, 2017)
Night Driving (© F. P. Dorchak, January 28, 2017)

I love driving at night.

I’d written a post about a particular night drive I’d taken years ago, when I was 27. It was a mystical cross-country drive I’d taken solo. My last such solo drive was from Wyoming to Colorado in November of 2015.

I’d taken this photo this past weekend as my wife and I returned from visiting family up north of us and were driving through Denver. I love the look and feel of this image. The lights of the buildings in the distance. Love the in-the-moment perspective.

Love the dark.

I love how my thoughts turn waaay inward in the night. I love the feel of the road. The passing of the night as I (we) plow on through it…are enveloped by it. Love how the imagination comes out in full force in the absence of light. Wonder where those lights in the distance are coming from and what’s going on at or around them.

Don’t get me wrong—I love daylight and all things associated with it! I’m not a Goth anything…I am a fan of both light and darkness. But…

Yeah, I really love driving at night….

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