Still Snow

We have had temperatures for thaw today, but there is still snow on the ground. This is how much snow we got the other day. I am not so fond of it this time of the year. We had spring, I want spring to come back. 

Diet Food

There has been a cardboard box on a shelf in the kitchen for a while, with some content that has made me curious due to its scent. I finally got hold of it today. There were small bags of powder inside. Once I got through and could taste it, I did not want anymore. When I read on the box and on the bags, I understood why it was not tasty. The contents was a kind of diet food. Do I need to elaborate? I would not think so. 

Later, Daniel threw the rest of the content in the trash. This further goes to prove it was not worth anything. 

A Lot of Snow

Winter sure is back. We got about a decimetre of snow in the morning. It was cold, so the snow was far from heavy. Daniel shoveled the driveway in twenty minutes, which is much faster than he usually does. This might have been good in the afternoon, when Paula took the car to go to the store, but she used our current high car with four wheel drive to take another path through the snow. I guess there were some advantage to this path. 

Qualifiers

The qualification games for the European Championship in football has started. Tonight, Scotland beat Spain, 2–0. I guess this was the most surprising result so far. Meanwhile, Sweden has lost to Belgium, but won against Azerbajdzjan. The World Cup is more interesting, but the European Championship is not bad. 

Dark Morning

It was dark again, when we got up this morning. I will never understand Daylight Saving Time, which we got yesterday. It makes mornings darker, so it feels less good getting up. Could the humans not stop unsing daylight saving time?

Snow

Last year, the heaviest snowfall came in early April. This was late for snow. We have had more snow this year, but the last snow thawed a while ago, until this weekend. We have had snowfall yesterday and today. It is not much, but it is still snow in late March. I guess it will not stay on the ground for long. 

The Vacuum Cleaner Tucked Away

In the weekends, when he is free from work, Daniel usually cleans the house. He used the vacuum cleaner, as he usually does. Since last weekend, the vacuum cleaner was left in the living room. Now that Daniel was done with it, he tucked it away in the cupboard where it is usually stored. I like it better this way. It is not in the way and it does not disturb the visual impact of the living room. The coming week will be better, when the vacuum cleaner is tucked away. 

New Windshield

The car has a new windshield. A stone hit the windshield some weeks ago, then this turned into a big crack. We just had to get a new windshield. A windshield with a big crackers not safe, if anything would happen.

We hope no stone will hit the new windshield. 

Singing Birds

On the morning walk today, we could hear birds singing. This is a lovely sign of spring. I like it.

Spring is coming. We do not have frost in the mornings and the Sun is up when we wake up. There will be another summer. 

Laila Got Better

We were concerned about our Toy Poodle friend Laila this morning. She could hardly walk. She is old and has had teouble with her balance before. Later in the day, however, she ate properly and could walk properly. When I write this in the evening, we feel sure that Laila is healthy. She will keep going for a long time. This is good news for all of us. 

Alarm

The fire alarm started today, when we were in the kitchen. It does occasionally, when we cook food and there is a lot of steam or something like that. Very seldom, but it has happened before. When Daniel is at home, he can reach up to the alarm and turn it off. Paula is not as tall and since Daniel was not at home, she had to solve it. The result was that the alarm fel to the floor. Daniel could put it up again, when he came home. It is good that nothing was more alarming than this today. 

No Delivery

We watched a show on TV tonight about humans who renovated a house. They got a child. At one time in the show, they said that the child was eight weeks old. When pups are eight weeks old, they are delivered to their new homes. Nobody said anything about a delivery of this child. There are differences between humans and dogs. I think the dog way is better, then you do not have to keep every pup, but just the pups you can handle. 

Chicken

Paula cooked a chicken for lunch today. There were some chicken meat reserved for us dogs, which was highly appreciated. 

Paula is a very good cook. I wish she would cook more often, and give more of this food to us dogs. I always like the food she prepares. Perhaps there will be more soon. 

Re-elected

Paula and Daniel were at the annual meeting of Örebro län Kennel Club today. They were both re-elected to the board of the club. We are all proud of the job that they do in this club and that other members consider them good enough to sig on the board. It will be a good year for the club. 

St. Gertrud's Day

In Ireland, they celebrate St. Patrick on the 17 March. In Sweden, we celebrate St. Gertrud. This means I congratulate my daughter Gertrud on her name day. I also congratulate Paula's mother Gertrud. If we would know any Patrik, we would congratulate him on the 16 April 

Chinese Provocations

Chinese coast guard vessels have expelled Japanese vessels from Japanese territorial water around the Senkaku Islands. China claims these Japanese islands. 

There are too few news stories in Western mass media about Chinese provocations like this. What Russia does to Ukraine, China seems close to do to any of her neighbours. In Sweden, we should not buy Chinese goods, just like we do not buy Russian goods. China has a dangerous regime, it should not be allowed to provoke and make threats. 

I hope Japan makes sure Chinese coast guards cannot operate in Japanese water in the future. 

Water Bowls

We have nice humans. They usually make sure our water bowls are full of water. In the few instances when all of the water bowls are empty, we just have to make some noise with them, and water will soon come.

This evening, Daniel filled up the water bowls, but we emptied them again. He was a little annoyed that he had to fill the bowls a second time the same evening, which I can understand, but he still did it. This is the kind of human to have. Our lives are good. 

Late Dinner

Daniel came home late from work today, even though he had no meeting after work. This postponed dinner. Thus, dinner just became a couple of sandwiches. I prefer cooked food, especially with meat. Now there were nothing for me to taste. I hope it will be better tomorrow evening, 

Kenzaburo Oe Has Passed Away

The Nobel Prize winner in litterature, Japanese novelist Kenzaburo Oe, has passed away. 

It is not common that Japanese writers get the Nobel Prize. It is only natural that a Swedish academy deciding on the prize will more often give it to writers whose works are more readily available for them. This also makes the prize to Oe all the more special. If you want to read novels by a Japanese writer, I guess those of Oe may be a good choice. 

Vacuum Cleaner

We cleaned the house today. One of the things we used was the vacuum cleaner. 

I had a talk with Daniel about Swedish, English, and the word for vacuum cleaner. In Swedish, it is called dammsugare, which litterally means dust sucker. If you speak a mix of Swedish and English, sometimes called Swenglish, you could jokingly translate dammsugare to damn sugar. This would be funny. When you use the vacuum cleaner, you move around and lose weight, but if you would really use damn sugar, you would probably gain weight. Human languages can be funny. 

The Swedish Qualification Round

The final round of the Swedish qualification competition to the Eurovision Song Contest was aired today. Most people guessed that Loreen would win, and she did. Where Song was not as good as last time she won, we believe, but it might get a fairly good result anyway. We will have a better prognostiserat when we hear the rest of the songs. It is nice if Sweden wins, but we can root for the best song anyway. We will see. 

A Waste of Minced Meat

Paula fried some minced meat this evening, but it just ended up in a box and went into the refrigerator. Nobody got to eat it. What a waste of good meat!

I said I could volunteer, if the minced meat needed to be eaten. My offer was refused. This was sad, I hoped to make an important effort for that minced meat, but was not allowed to.

Perhaps the minced meat will end up in our dog food tomorrow. I hope so. 

Capturing Carbon Dioxide

A new metod to capture carbon dioxide from the air is showing promise. It would capture much more, and cheaper, than the methods developed until now.

Humans have caused the current surge in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is good that they develop methods to solve this problem. I trust humans to achieve this. They usually do, when they set out to. Humans are great, almost as great as Shibas. 

Not a Lot of Snow

The weather forecast said we could get more than ten centimetres of snow last night. We got one centimetre of snow.

Daniel was pleased that he did not have to shovel any snow. We were sad that there was no think layer of snow to jump around in. We would also like to have more snow, because it will become more water underground, thus, more water in the well. Nevertheless, the sunny day today was a beautiful one, when the snow sparkled. Life is nice. 

Forecast

The weather forecast said we would get a lottor snow this afternoon. We did not. A little snow was falling when we got out for the evening around eight o’clock. 

We suppose snow will come during the night.

Daniel made sure our cat Malin could not go out, so she would not be caught in a heavy snowfall. This made her mad, but she had not read any weather forecasts. I hope she understands Daniel, once the snow comes. 

Colder Again

It was really cold outside today. I chose netto go on the morning walk, but to sleep a little longer and then just go out in the yard for a little while.

We are lucky to have the yard, which we can use now and then. I would not want to live in a block of flats, where you would always have to take walks to go outside. Life in a house with a yard is the best thing. 

Vasaloppet

For the first time in many years, the classic Swedish cross country ski race Vasaloppet was not won by a Norwegian skier. The Swede Emil Persson won. We are happy that the honour of the victory has returned home. 

My Norwegian grandfather would not have been as pleased as I am. I think he would not have been too disappointed, though, because many Norwegians got prominent positions in the race, anyway. 

Came Home

From Saturday morning until this afternoon, Daniel was not at home. He visited family members in Stockholm. Meanwhile, back home, all of us dogs helped Paula watch the house. 

It feels better now that Daniel is back home again. We had a nice dinner and everything returned to normal. Life is good. 

Sunshine

It has been sunshine today. In the winter, like it still is, sunshine makes for a very beautiful scenery. It is cold, however. I would rather have the warmth of summer. Sunshine is still welcome. 

Free Spirits

Our cats are free spirits. They want to come indoors and go outdoors as they please. Paula and Daniel let them in and out whenever they can, when one of the cats is waiting by the door. However, they never walk far away from our yard. Totte, the male cat, walks farther. When he joins us on the morning walks, he still does not want to go on the parallel street where there is more traffic. We often oblige him and turn and walk back the same way again. Cats are cool friends, but not really as dogs. We love our cats anyway. 

A Dog Rescued After 23 Days

A dog was rescued in Turkey after twenty-three days under rubble after the earthquake. The dog can be seen on a film published by the BBC. It is a heart warming story.

It is not often the news tell stories about how dogs are affected by catastrophes. I complain about this sometimes. This time, I am happy to see this piece of happy news. It made my day better. 

It Does Not Feel Like Spring Yet

It is the first day of March. This is the first month of spring, if you divide the twelve months into four quarters with a season each. The weather forecasters have also declared that spring is already here. It still does not feel like it, though, when it is temperatures below zero every morning walk. Nevertheless, we know spring will come, eventually. Then there will be summer. The older I get, the more I like the warmth of summer. It will be nice.