An Extra Day

It is a leap year this year, which means February has an extra day, the 29th. The more logical way might be to put the extra day at the very end of the year. This was actually what was done by the ancient Romans, whose calendar we are still using in a reformed version. The early Roman year ended by the end of February. This was later changed, so that the year ended by the end of December. The leap day was still added to February, however. The names of the months of September, October, November, and December are also reminding us that February used to be the last month, because the names means the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth month. There are a lot of interesting trivia about the calendar.

Home Again

Paula is home again. She came home this evening. It is great, the whole family is together again. I wish we could always be together.

Paula has had a great time, she told us, but she has missed us. I can understand this. It is fun going away for a while, but there is no place like home. Being with the family is the best. Then again, if we would never go away and experience something different, how could we know how good it is to be at home with the whole family?

Now we are all together again. It is great,

Eclipse

My dear daughter Polly and I hope that the band Eclipse will win the Qualification round tonight. We are not sure whether they should change how they spell their name, though. My opinion is that "eclips" is the better way to spell the word. Polly claims "eclipse" is the correct spelling. She is right, of course. It is just that I spell my name "Lunar Eclips",  while Polly spells her name "Full Moon Eclipse".

Regardless of how the band spells their name, they have a really good song. We root for it.

Up in the Mountains

Paula is up in the mountains near the Norwegian border this weekend. She is there with her parents, her sister, and her nephew. It is a place called Tandådalen.

I would like to visit Tandådalen myself sometime. It is a neighbour of Hundfjället, which is Swedish for Mount Dog. If dogs would not fit in at Hundfjället, I do not know where we would fit in.

Is Sanders the Best Bet to Beat Trump?

My Mum was from the USA, so I have always been interested in American affairs and politics. This autumn,  the American votes will elected a new President as Head of State. (Unlike Sweden or Japan, they lack a monarch and has to elected a Head of State instead.)

It seems like Donald Trump will be the Republican party nominee. He is an unpolished but successful businessman, rich, but has no political experience. I do not think he would make a good President.

The Democrat party has two main contestants: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Clinton has more political experience, but a lot of affairs behind her and is not a very strong candidate, albeit being in the centre of the political field. Sanders is more leftish. He is the outsider, while Clinton is the establishment candidates. I guess there is a lot of truth in this article,  that says Sanders would be the candidates who can beat Trump.

Old Castles

We watched a TV show about old Medieval castles today. It was about how they were constructed and how people lived in them.

The show was very well made and interesting. I just wish they would have talked about how dogs lived in a Medieval castle.

Meteor

A large meteor burned up in Earth's atmosphere on The 6th of February. It fell to Earth over the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil. It is estimated to have been the biggest since a large object exploded over Russia in 2013.

We are lucky most meteors burn up in the atmosphere, protecting life on Earth. Meteors can be devastating. I wish more could be done to detect them before any really dangerous one hit Earth. It could kill a lot of dogs and humans. It would be nice if such a tragedy could be avoided.

Night Shift

Paula has the night shift as nurse at the hospital. This means that we dogs have the night shift as guard dogs. Daniel is at home, but we are still always more watchful when not both of our humans are at home, especially at night.

Sometimes, I wish both Paula and Daniel would always be at home at night. I guess this is not possible, but I wish it were. It feels better when they are. We dogs are fully capable of defending our home without them, but it would be better if we would not have to.

Swedish Town in Japan

There is a tiny Swedish town in Japan. It is called Sweden Hills and is located about 30 kilometres from Sapporo on the northern Japanese island Hokkaido. The town has got houses that look Swedish, and a Japanese population who likes to take part in Swedish traditions like midsummer celebrations.

I wonder what dogs they have in Sweden Hills. Do they try to have dogs of national Swedish breeds? There are a few Swedish dog breeds. If not, they could get Shibas from Swedish breeders, if they would want to.

Dogs Look Like Their Humans

Scientists have now come to the conclusion that many of us have suspected is true: humans look like their dogs, and vice versa. Humans also have an ability in blind tests to match dog and human, which is better than pure coincidence. This shows how important dogs and humans are to each other. It is certainly interesting.

Statistics

Once in a while, I look at the numbers on how many readers my blog has. At times, links to blog entries are published on other sites to boost traffic, but it is not always traffic is boosted. I can never be certain what blog entries get the most attention. On the other paw, I have never blogged just to get a lot of readers. The main thing is to have my own journal; if I get readers, I am glad, but it is not necessary. Still, I wish to thank my readers for showing their interest in my life and thoughts. It is nice that you do.

Raid on Aid Clinic

It must take a certain kind of coward to raid an aid clinic. One such clinic in Afghanistan, run by Swedes, has been raided. Two patients and one carer was killed.

What possesses people to raid a medical clinic? Do they really think they can gain anything from it? Was there, perhaps, a certain patient they wanted to kill? If so, why kill the others? Some sources say the raiders were from the Afghan National Army.

If Sweden would still have had military presence in Afghanistan, I know what I would have wanted the Swedish soldiers doing. Unfortunately, the Swedish army has left the country. The raid against the clinic is just one tragic event that might have been avoided, if Swedish soldiers would still have been there. Would it have been carried out against a Swedish run clinic with Swedish armed forces close by? Less likely, I would think. Who will give the killed humans justice now?

Two Years

Hello, Karstuhl here!

My dear daughter Soya turns two years old today. She lives with Paula's sister and family, not far away from us. I would have wanted to be there today, they had birthday cake. I would have helped Soya to eat the cake. Perhaps I would also have brought a birthday gift. She would deserve it. We will see when I meet her next time, so I can congratulate her. Whenever it will be, it will be nice.

Daylight in the Morning

We have started to see daylight again on our morning walks. This is so nice. You feel more awake when you walk in daylight than in the darkness of winter mornings.

Unfortunately, darkness will come back, when humans reset their clocks with the daylight savings time. This makes the mornings darker again, for no apparent meaning.

For now, we are happy that we have daylight on the morning walks.

Disturbances

This night, I was the first one to lay in the bed. I was very comfortable, having arranged the pillows and everything the way I wanted it. Then the others came along. I did not stand it this time, but jumped off the bed and found a different, undisturbed place to sleep. There are times when you just want a little privacy, without any disturbances. I hope to get a good night's sleep tonight.

Where Did the Weekend Go?

It is Sunday night, and we are discussing where the weekend went. It went by so fast, that we wonder if it really did came. I did not even have the time to write a blog entry yesterday. How can this be so? Weekdays are often long and boring, weekends just fly past you. It might be because we do not have the same schedule on weekends as on weekdays, but I would bet that weekends would feel like they went past just as fast anyway. It is just that much more fun to have your humans at home more, as they are on weekends. When you have fun, time flies. I just wish it did not.

TGIF

Thank God it is Friday. The weekend starts and we have less duties to attend to. I like it. Good night!

National Foundation Day

The 11th of February is celebrated every year in Japan as National Foundation Day. It is in remembrance of the first emperor, Jimmu, who ascended to the throne this day. The current emperor is the successor of Jimmu and Japan is considered the country in the world with the longest consecutive history as one country.

We celebrated National Foundation Day with some extra tasty food. There is never a bad reason to celebrate, but a Japanese national day of celebrations is an extra good reason to celebrate. There are so many good things coming from Japan.

Jumping Up Into the Bed

Orange is a nice girl, but sometimes, I cannot understand what she is thinking. When all the rest of us had gone to bed already, she walked to and fro without jumping up into the bed. What was wrong? I did not understand, and she did not say. If you want to lay in the bed, just jump up into it. If you do not, just lay down somewhere else. Walking about is disturbing for the rest of us.

After a while, Orange did jump up and found herself a place in the bed. I think we were all happy for her, finding a place to sleep. We could all sleep well, when nobody walked around.

Semla

I did not get any semla this Tuesday, the traditional Swedish pastry for the time before Easter. I did get other tasty things, but no semla. This was disappointing. I have to work harder to make my humans remember me, when they get semlas next time.

Training

Paula is studying to become an intensive care nurse. This is an exam she will receive on top of being an ordinary trained nurse. She started doing days at an intensive care unit at the hospital today, telling us afterwards that it is just as interesting as she has wished it would be. She was tired, but happy. We believe she will do great as an intensive care nurse. We wish her good luck.

Super Bowl

Tonight is the night of Super Bowl L, in other words, the fiftieth time the final of the US national championship in American Football is played in a single game. It is one of the most viewed sport events in the world. I am not that into American Football, and the competing teams this year are from Colorado and North Carolina, no States I feel any affiliation with. Still, the sheer size of the game makes it worth writing a word or two about it. I believe it is great to have just a single game as the final, it makes this game that much more important and the annual event greater. It is almost like the final in the FIFA Football World Cup. I think more sports should do the same. A final of seven games, like in Stanley Cup, may give the competing teams more revenue, but is not as exciting. Hou do not have the same excitement in the first games as you have in the single Super Bowl or World Cup final game. Nobody would ever expect a dog show to have more than one Best in Show final. The single game is the great thing about the game to ight. Let the best team win!

No Good Songs

Here we go again, this year's Swedish qualification round to the Eurovision Song Contest has started. Seven Songs would have competition, but one was disqualified for not being a new song. It was still performed, after the sig songs that competed. None of the seven songs were good. We were rather disappointed,  but hope there will be good songs in the upcoming qualification rounds. We want Sweden to have a good song in the Eurovision final.

Wine?

When humans celebrate, they often drink wine. They can also drink liquor or beer. I have never understood this. To me, drinking is an act to avoid being thirsty. I love to celebrate by eating something tasty, like a steak,  but I only drink water.  There are clear differences between dogs and humans, this is one of them. It is OK, we are different species, we do not have to be the same. I love my humans anyway.

Beauty Pageants

This evening, we watched a TV show about beauty pageants for children in the USA. It was a strange competition for us, who are used to dog shows. At dog shows, we are judged by who we are, while these children had make up and seemed to have fake smiles. Some parentes coached the children from the sidelines. It was a competition in fake beauty, not in conformity to a breed standard. Silly, I think.

Ujghjy

The headline of this blog post was written by Paula. She was fooling around, having that kind of joking mode that you have once in a while. She said she could not sleep. When one of us dogs cannot sleep, we are let out in the garden for a while. Paula went to make herself an evening snack. That would be a better option for me too, some nights when I cannot sleep. I hope Paula remembers this, so she can give me an evening snack next time I am the one who is too restless to go to sleep. In this case, it would almost be a blessing, not being able to sleep,

As if Nature Was Ironic

Yesterday, I blogged about the return of snow on the ground, and that I liked it. This morning, all of the snow had disappeared again. The temperature was above the freezing point all day and we had rain. This feels ironic. It is as if nature read my blog and wanted to make a joke at my expense, as if nature was ironic. I do wave my tail at the thought of this, it was a little funny.

I hope we will get more snow soon. It is too early for spring and the nights are so long that the white snow is welcome to make them brighter. We will have to see what happens.

Snow

After some days of thaw, snow came back today. This should not surprise anybody, it is just the 1st of February. Spring is still far away. It is dark in the mornings and evenings, but the snow helps, making the surroundings brighter. I like it.