It was the fall of 1812, and a young Scottish officer of the Rifle Brigade, under the command of the brilliant Lord Wellington, is storming through Portugal and Spain. Napoleon was in the thick of conquering all of Europe. The battles, brutal. Our young officer kept a diary; Adventures in the Rifle Brigade.

I just finished reading his memoir. Partly, for the history. Partly, for the lovely English used at that time. And, so Marcia thinks, partly to drive her to madness by retelling whole chapters of the story – she dislikes history; immensely.

Now that you’re on the edge of your seat, let’s break for some morning coffee and then our tale will continue.

“All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavor to find out what you don’t know by what you do; that’s what I called ‘guessing what was at the other side of the hill.'”~ Duke of Wellington 1769 – 1852

Our friend’s journal ends with the conclusion of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. As the French troops are routed our writer stops to take stock. The field is a sea of bodies, man and horses; thousands of bodies. In fact, his own massive Flanders Mare has an ear shot off, a rifle ball lodged between the saddle and hide, and has taken a shot through the leg – none of which appeared to impede her.

Curiosity got the better of me and so I ‘rooted’ around a bit further.  A photo was made of soldiers paying homage to the 8 million donkeys, horses, and mules which died during World War I.

Also, the Brits established an animal equivalent to the Victoria Cross for valor – The Dickin medal. To date there have been 67 awards. The first given in 1943 to a Pigeon named White Vision. What could a pigeon have done? Here is what; “Delivered a message that led to the rescue of a ditched aircrew in October 1943. She flew 9 hours in bad visibility and heavy weather with strong headwinds.”

When every day is Saturday there is time to discover, and discovering those little bits-and-pieces is something I just love to do.

Don’t Waste Your Money (DWYM) Reporter – John Matarese is the Consumer Reporter for one of our local TV stations. A week or so ago, about mid-day, Marcia and I were in line at a grocery store on our way home from soccer. Immediately ahead of me was a guy who was finicky, slow, and just when I thought he was done presented a ‘raincheck’ coupon for 3 boxes of whole wheat Cheerios. The coupon presented now became a new order thereby confused the young teller, She had to call over a more senior clerk. I waited and waited. I even made some uncomplimentary comment to Marcia who was behind me on the other side of our cart.

I was the first to recognize that the PTA (Pain in the A**) guy was none other than our local TV personality. Marcia had not.

Finally he turned to me and apologized for holding up the line. My retort caused Marcia’s eyes to bulge out. With a smile I replied; “no problem, it gave me the opportunity to read EVERY word on your Cheerio boxes.”

Marcia, who hates when I do these things, was shocked, even more so when I told her that it was Matarese who she watches nearly every evening.

You gotta love it, especially since it happened on one of those days when you realize that every day is Saturday.

All on the same day – I had been going through my Twitter account. One, a political one, had several others listed; all extremely unflattering to our new President in Waiting. From these one name sort of jumped out. It was none other than Paul Schrader, now a major movie director and producer. Someone who, on many an occasion while at school, I shared coffee with as we students ‘fixed’ the world. A name from the past, a blast from the past – kinda fun.

A few hours later I got a call from brother Art. “Dirk, do you remember Gillis?” he asked. From 40 or so years ago I remembered he had a buddy named Gillis. “Did his dad have a Mustang Shelby?” I asked (us guys have a way of compartmentalizing specifics). “Well, Gillis just called me out of the blue, and yes, only Gillis now owns a dozen Shelbys”, answered Art.

Not only that, but it turns out that Gillis helped Petersen lay-out the Petersen Automotive Museum us brothers toured this past summer. Gillis connected with Petersen when he purchased a couple of the Petersen automotive publications.

Easing back as if every day is Saturday causes these happenings to just come and wash over you, or so I believe.

Bread Snobs – alright, I’ve just got to stop with this bread thing. So here is a final photo, this of a 2# loaf a; SOUR RYE.

We get these stunning breads from Blue Oven Bakery in Findlay Market.

What has got many of us ‘buzzing’ is that the American Planning Association (APA) has just named Findlay Market as; “one of five Great Public Spaces on the annual “Great Places in America” list for 2016”. I just knew there was a reason why we love our weekly trip to the area – a GREAT place, especially on a Saturday morning.

Finis – Have a great Thanksgiving this week.

Years ago, when all the kids still lived at home I managed to get a hold of a smoker. So, for several years, on the day we’d head for the orchard to pick our fresh apples, I’d also pick up a few small pieces of a dead apple tree branch. Apple smoked Turkey is heaven.

For several years I’d get up early on Thanksgiving morning to get the smoker started. There really is nothing better.

Or so I thought.

One year, a few days before Thanksgiving (remember that was a time before we had heard the word, “intervention”) I was given the following bit of news; “Dad, we know you love doing the smoking thing, but we really don’t like it”.

That was the first time in several years where Marcia loaded the Turkey into the oven. The kids loved it!

Cheers.

Dirk