We spend New Year’s Eve at home. All of the dogs, cats, Paula, and Daniel are at home. We have had treats to eat and nice company in a calm and quite quiet home. There are crackers and fireworks making noise from afar, but when we are all together in our comfortable home, none of us cares.
Happy new year to you all! May 2023 be a better year for all of us, than 2022 was.
The most important part of the Swedish Christmas dinner is the Christmas ham. This is a full ham of pork, boiled and then glazed with mustard, egg, and bread crumbs. Since Paula and Daniel were not going to have their main Christmas celebration here at home, they did not buy any ham. Yesterday, when Daniel was grocery shopping, he did buy one for half the price. He prepared it and glazed it today and it became the main part of dinner. Ham is good and this was cheap and healthy food. It was a good purchase.
The capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, has about twenty million inhabitants. It is also very densely populated. Up until now, it has still not had a metro railway to ease the congestion in the streets. With aid from Japan, the first metro line is now built and has opened. Fully developed into six lines, the metro system will have more than a hundred stations. It is hard to imagine the difference this will make, but it will surely be great. Japanese aid is good.
Daniel went back to work today. He was at the office for several hours in the early day. Thus, he was back in business after the big Christmas celebrations.
Paula is not at home, so when Daniel is at the office, we watch the house. Thus, we were back in business. It feels good to have a purpose and to make a difference.
Apparently, nobody really knows why this, the second day of Christmas, is called Boxing Day in English.
We have a better name in Swedish: Other Day, which comes from Second Day. It is boring, but we know what it means.
We have mostly taken it easy today. We usually do on the second day of Christmas. Life is nice.
This time when we got food, I guess I ate too quickly. Some of it came back up again. Is this how to celebrate Christmas thoroughly?
I am sorry if my words made you feel sick. It is just that I wanted to write about this, and did not know how to rewrite it in a more poetic manner. This is just the way I write.
The day before Christmas Eve is always a day of preparations and cleaning. We have prepared Christmas gifts and candy. We have also cleaned a lot in the house.
Daniel finally switched the curtains in the kitchen to our Christmas curtains. This is always his job, since he is tall enough to reach up to switch the curtains without standing on a chair. He usually do this around the start of December, but finally got around to it today for this Christmas. This increases the Christmas feeling.
When I logged in to write in my blog today, it looked just like the day before yesterday. The new look of yesterday was gone again. This makes me wonder. Why was there a new look yesterday? Why has the previous look come back? There can be so many questions from a simple change like this, especially when it is changed back again.
I did have an idea for a blog post that did not involve the look of the blog service web page. This idea has now slipped from my mind. It is possible that I will remember it tomorrow and that the blog entry for tomorrow will be about this idea. Stay tuned, and you may find out.
Blogger is the host of my blog. It is a free service and I am quite satisfied with it. However, the look has just been updated, and it confuses me a bit. Where there has been a + sign on a button which lets you write a new blog entry, there was now a lock. I wonder why. What would a lock represent? There is surely some cause behind it, I just cannot think of any cause. Life is full of riddles and enigmas. On the other paw, life would be much less fun, if you would instantly understand everything. I might just have to learn to live with the new look.
We had a little time with temperatures above the freezing point, so snow thawed. Then the temperature droppen again. In the evening, snow fell. It is interesting weather, in a way. I am glad it is not quite as cold as last week.
For the first time since 2002, a South American team has won the World Cup. The score was 2-2 at full time and 3-3 after extra time. Then Argentina managed the penalty shoot out best.
Both teams had been in World Cup finals before. In the 22 World Cup finals ever played, only four countries have appeared in just one final: Croatia in 2018 (silver), England in 1966 (gold), Spain in 2010 (gold), and Sweden in 1958 (silver).
The next World Cup will be played in four years. This is a long time, especially for a dog. I am not sure I am around then. I do wish Sweden will participate and that both Sweden and Japan get good results, nevertheless.
Croatia won the bronze game in the World Cup. This means that Croatia is now equal to Sweden, when it comes to World Cup medals. Both countries have one silver and two bronzes. Croatia have won all medals after the latest time Sweden won a medal, in 1994. The Swedes really have to take up this challenge, otherwise Croatia may pass in the medal count. I would certainly not want that.
Morocco came fourth. This is the first time a team from Africa has gone this far, so they should not be sad. There is still just one country outside of Europe or South America that has won any medal, the USA, bronze in 1930.
Covid-19 surges in China. A Chinese-Japanese environmental conference in Beijing has been postponed. This is despite the plan of having an on line conference.
I wonder how many people in China are vaccinated. The vaccines seem to have broken the virus in Europe, why not there?
The final of the World Cup will be played by two countries which have both been gold medalists before. Argentina won in 1978 and 1986, France won in 1998 and 2018. Both won their first gold on home turf. We will see on Sunday which will be a three time World Cup winner.
Our telephone and wifi at home do not work. This is quite annoying. The operator wants Paula to identify herself electronically to get help, but this is not possible when the net is down. O tempora, o mores.
The web was down for several hours today. It was not until late in the night that I could go online and post in the blog. Now that I can, I lack inspiration. Please come back tomorrow, the blog post may be more interesting then.
There was spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner tonight. I got the task of pre washing the dishes. Unfortunately, there are a LO-tidningen small dogs who love to help. You ask them to do other chores, and they refuse, but if you tell them you will do the pre washing of dishes yourself, they run over each other in eagerness to help. Nevertheless, I got to do most of the work myself. It did turn out fine in the end.
The chimney sweeper was here this afternoon. Part of his job was on top of the roof, this always brings a lot of noise. The Chihuahuas barked at him when he was up there, as if this would make the noise disappear quicker. Viola said, nevertheless, that the noise did stop rather quickly, so the barking was worth it. I do not think it was the barking that did it, but Viola told me: you never know.
It is good to have the chimney swept. Now it will be easier to boost our indoor temperature by a cozy fire. Life is good when a fire gives us heat in the house.
For the first time since the Second World War, Japanese fighter aircraft have landed in the Philippines. This time, it is because of cooperation between Japan and the Philippines. With greater military threats from China, Japan and the Philippines have decided on more military cooperation.
Cooperation of this sort is good. The countries threatened by China have a common cause and can do a lot to counter the threat together. I fully support this.
While Peanut was happy that England went on to the quarter finals yesterday, we were both sad that Japan lost to Croatia today. The game was tied after over time and Croatia won on penalties.
Brazil won against South Korea. So far, only European and South American teams are through. This is how it use to be.
In the last game of the World Cup group for Japan, the team beat Spain, 2-1. Thus, Japan won the group and is through to the final 16.
Spain has won versus Costa Rica and played a draw versus Germany. Since Japan won versus Germany and Germany did not win with more goals versus Costa Rica than Spain did, Spain also got through to the final 16. For the second World Cup in a row, Germany fails to go on from the group. This is a terrible result for Germany, which has won four World Cups and several other medals.
Peanut, Gunnar, and I are very happy for Japan, the home country of our breed. Our Poodle friend Laila, who was born in Japan, participate in the celebrations.
Now we hope for continued success.
It is raining today. There is an old Swedish saying that if there is wet and mild weather on the last day of November, it will be snow and cold on Christmas. I do not believe there is any correlation there, so I do not believe in this saying. We mostly have green Christmases, so my bet is on a green Christmas this year as well.
Rain is good, it fills up our well. Snow does not do the same until it melts, sometimes not until spring. We will have to see what happens.
The picture of Totte the cat never got uploaded to my blog entry yesterday. I did not discover this until this evening. If I realise how I can upload the picture tomorrow, I will.
It is troublesome when pictures cannot be uploaded.
Our cats Malin and Totte are often outdoors throughout the night. They are nocturnal hunters. Their nights outdoors are, however, fewer in the winter months. I understand that they rather want to spend the nights in the warmth indoors.
This is Totte close to Paula tonight.
It is the first Sunday in the time called Advent. This is the time before Christmas, four Sundays before. We did not really celebrate, but it is nice to know that Christmas, with its abundance of good food, is close by.
The good thing about the human love of counting the time is that they know when to celebrate. Celebrations are always nice.
Our Chihuahua friends are sad tonight. Mexico played Argentina in the World Cup, but lost, 0-2.
Generally, Argentina is better than Mexico at football. However, Argentina lost its first game versus Saudi Arabia, an even less good football country. When Mexico held on to 0-0 in the first half, even playing a bit better, there was hope. In the end, Argentina still won.
We will have to see if Mexico can advance.
Paula was at home with us dogs today, while Daniel was at work. This is not out of the ordinary.
It is often better when Paula gives us food, than when Daniel does. Paula will more often give us something special, while Daniel give us dog food. This day was even better than most of the days when Paula gives us food. We got steak and minced meat. It is hard to imagine better food.
I am aware that we cannot get food like this every day, but I can always wish we would get it more often.
Paula was at the hospital for a couple of hours today. The medical staff took tests on her to see what bothers her stomach. When Paula came home, she was satisfied with the visit to the hospital. She had more answers, even though the answers where not all good. It is still better to know, than to be unsure. This will surely be a step on the way towards being well again.
Japan beat Germany in the FIFA football World Cup.
This is an amazing and fantastic result. Germany is one of the great powers in football, with four World Cup titles and many more medals. Germany would normally beat Japan easily.
All of us Shibas celebrate. Our Poodle friend Laila, who was born in Japan, also celebrates. However, our Affenpinscher friend Morran is sad – her breed is from Germany and she roots for Germany. Out of respect for Morran, we celebrate in a modest way.
So far, this World Cup is interesting.
In the football World Cup, Saudi Arabia beat Argentina, 2-1. Argentina is much higher on the world ranking and has a great football history. Some would say this is the most surprising result ever in a World Cup in football.
While surprising results are often nice, as such, I cannot be happy that Saudi Arabia won. It is a dictatorship and they do not treat dogs well.
Peanut said Argentina could have it. He does not like Argentina, because Argentina claims British islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. Still, Argentina is a democracy, and while they speak Spanish there, our Chihuahua friends feel a little affiliated with them. We will have to see if Argentina recovers. The Chihuahuas root for Mexico before other participants.
The first genuine snowfall this winter came this morning. Snow that falls in November generally does not last until spring. We will have to see what happens this time.
Snow is fun, even though I enjoyed it more when I was younger.
The 2022 FIFA Football World Cup has started. Ecuador won the first game versus host Qatar, 2-0.
There has been great debates about the host Qatar. People say the laws of Qatar do not respect human rights. As far as I know, they do not respect canine rights, either.
Now the tournament is up and running, regardless of the complaints. We hope democratic countries like Japan (where Shibas in general and Gunnar and Laila in particular are from), England (where Peanut is from), France (where Laila’s breed Poodle is from), Germany (where Morran’s breed Affenpinscher is from), or Mexico (where Piffy’s, Viola’s, and Pepe’s breed Chihuahua is from) will be most successful. We will see what happens.
Paula and Daniel were at a birthday party this afternoon. Paula’s niece Nadja turned six years old.
I could not go myself. Neither could any of the dogs. We forwarded our birthday congratulations with Paula and Daniel. Nadja is a nice young human, she is well worth the celebrations.
It is no game of ice hockey on TV tonight. It is, however, a night of ice hockey anyway. There is a gala devoted to ice hockey, its players and historic events on TV.
There are a lot of great, historic Swedish ice hockey moments. It is nice and well produced. Nevertheless, I believe a game is more exciting.
There is a kind of candy that looks like small bottles of cola pop. It tastes like cola pop too.
Daniel bought some cola bottle candy today. It made for tasty treats in the evening.
Evening treats are the best, at least in the evening. In the morning, morning treats are the best. In the afternoon, afternoon treats are the best. It varies throughout the day. It was nice that we had evening treats this evening.
The street where we live has been closed for cars at one end for a few years. We have been able to walk or ride bikes past it, but when going by car, we have had to take a detour. They have had a construction work there. From today, the street is open again. This is good. It has been a little annoying to go around. Now our house feels less isolated.
At the Brazilian Grand Prix in Formula 1 yesterday, Briton George Russell, who drives for Mercedes, won. As was pointed out by the Formula 1 web page, this was the first time God Save the King has been played for a winning driver or constructor at a World Championship Formula 1 event. All the previous times there have been a British winner, God Save the Queen was played. This is because Elizabeth II reigned for so many years and the first British victory came in 1953, the year after she became Queen. It sure gives a perspective on her long reign and long time Welsh Corgi breeding.
Paula discarded of an old dress today. It was a dress made of 100 % cotton, no synthetic materials. Thus, it could be burned in the stove. Daniel put it in there and soon had a fire going.
Fires are good. They spread heat and a little light. I like that humans can control fire. The old dress contributed to the fire.
Both Paula and Daniel were at home the whole day today. That is, except for dog walks. Daniel worked from home all day. I think it is good that he can.
We all had pasta for lunch. It is good when we get something else than the ordinary dog food for a change. Dog food is great, but other things are, as well.
All in all, it was a nice day today, despite that the weather was rather bad.
At a crematory in Japan, workers have burned garbage together with deceased pets. This has been going on for at least ten years.
The practice was not condoned by the leadership of the chain of crematories. They have made a survey of other crematories, and this practice has only occured at one of them. The workers there seemed to be unaware of the sensitivity, not understanding that humans want their pets cremated without garbage.
I cannot understand how this practice can have continued for ten years. Luckily, it was just at one crematory, but one is one to much in this case. It is good that it was discovered and that the practice has been stopped.
There are some days I feel better, some days I feel worse. This was a day of the former kind. I guess the less good days are due to my age. Nevertheless, life is generally good.
It would be good, if all days would be like this day. Many more days will be. Days like this is something to look forward to.
Today, I read an article about runes carved on a stone in Oklahoma, in the middle of continental USA. It seems unlikely vikings would have travelled this far.
We know vikings came from Greenland to Newfoundland. They probably travelled further than L’Anse Audi Meadows in northern Newfoundland, where undisputable evidence shows they were. To think that they went all the way around Florida in the south and up the Mississippi is far fetched, to say the least. I rather think evidence will be found in more places in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and places around there.
The runes do not seem to be of the right kind either, according to the article. Daniel said he agreed, even though he is no expert.
It is a fascinating story, that runes were carved in Oklahoma. It was probably done much later than the Viking Age, however.
In Sweden, many holidays are put in the weekend, even though the real day is on a fixed date. With a fixed date, the holiday is on different days of the week every year.
All Saints’ Day is one of these days. It is actually the 1 November, but we celebrate it on Saturday of the following weekend. Thus, we celebrated it today.
My thoughts went to all of the dogs who have lived with us, but who do not live on this Earth anymore. Grandmum, Dad, Mum, and many others are those whom I have been thinking of today. Perhaps I will meet them again in the afterlife.
There has been a devastating fire in Mora, where the annual cross country ski race Vasaloppet has its finish. A lot of equipment for the race is destroyed.
We hope that most of the equipment can be replaced or reproduced.
The day of Vasaloppet is a great day to lazily lie around following the race on TV. It is always the first Sunday in March. We hope the next race is not too gravely affected of the fire.
Paula was at an interview for a new job the day before yesterday. She got good news today: they want to meet her again next week. She is one of those who have passed until the next round. We wish her all the luck!
My own employment as a pet dog is secure. I do not have to seek new employment. This is good.
When Daniel came home from work today, he had purchased more dog food. This must be his most important purchase this month. I know it is just the 2 November, but how can you top the importance of buying dog food?
We have humans who take good care of our needs. This is good.
We did not get any news paper in our mailbox this morning. It is part of Daniel’s morning routine to read it, so he was quite annoyed.
It said on the web page of the news paper that the paper was late due to troubles at the printer. It said that the subscribers should have the paper at least at ten o’clock in the morning. Daniel went to check the mailbox about eleven o’clock, but no news paper was there. He checked in the evening as well, but there was still no news paper.
When the news paper will get here, it will hardly be a paper with news anymore.
It is good to have normal time in the morning. We had daylight on the morning walk again. This is something I miss most of October, because with Daylight Saving Time, it is darker in the morning. I know it will soon be dark mornings again, but this is of natural causes, not because the authorities say we all have to tamper with the clocks. We can enjoy the daylight in the mornings this week, at least.
Daylight Saving Time is over for this year. Hopefully, it is over for ever.
Daniel has made sure all the clocks show the right time again.
The obsession with precise time is something special for humans. They have so much to do, so I understand why they want to measure time precisely. What I do not understand, is why many of them want to turn the clocks twice a year. It would suit us dogs better without these turns.
China and its dictator Xi Jinping has gone out stating that China must assert its control over the Senkaku Islands. This is a group of islands that betongs to Japan, but lies closer to the Chinese mainland than the other Japanese islands do.
China is a dictatorship, thus threatening a democracy. All the democracies in the world should side with Japan. I hope Sweden will be clear in its stance, just like Sweden is clear when it comes to the Ukranian defence of its territory against Russian aggression.
Daniel worked from home today. One of the reasons was that he had a cold. He did not want to go out unnecessarily in the fairly cold weather to go to the office. He also did not want to make other people catch his cold. Despite this, he and Paula went grocery shopping later. He told me they had to have more groceries. This is understandable, everyone needs groceries. We all need to eat. Life is good when you get food. A cold is not so bad, if you can eat and like it.
Paula has been booked at an interview for a new job next week. She feels optimistic about it.
We all hope for Paula. She deserves some good news, like a new job. While she will be away from home more often with this job, she would earn more money, which she could use to buy dog food and dog candy. This is good.
Daniel baked scones for breakfast. I like scones.
We got some scones to our food, when Paula gave us food later in the day. It was great. I just wish Paula could have given us all of it. I could see there was some left. Perhaps we will get this tomorrow instead, this would not be bad.
After the latest general election, the city council held its first meeting today. Daniel was elected vice chairman. This is an honourable position and we are very proud of him for it.
In the evening, we celebrated with candy. This was nice. Peanut said the candy was the best thing about the election of Daniel as vice chairman. He is funny sometimes.
There are days when I forget to write a blog entry in this blog. Iris supposed to be daily, but is not quite so. Then there are days when I am reminded about the blog by chance, late in the day. Today was such a day.
I am happy that I remembered writing a blog entry. I was less happy that I had to come up with something to write. My dear late Mommy, whom I inherited the blog from, was better at this, I think. It is still my hope that all of you, who read this, find it good enough to come back. If you don’t, consider reading earlier blog posts instead. There are many and I am sure you will find some of them interesting. Stay tuned for more blog entries in the days to come.
We got pancake today. Paula gave us food, and a huge part of it was pancake. This is great food.
In Swedish culture, pancake is Thursday food. I would like to have had it yesterday, when it was Thursday, but I do not mind eating pancake today. It became great Friday food as well.
Paula would have had an interview for a new job today and one for another new job tomorrow. Both interviews were postponed. It is still nuclear when she will have these interviews instead.
What a coincidence, that both interviews were postponed. We had wished Paula good luck. Now there will be new interviews and we can wish good luck again. I wonder if this will amount to double luck? I hope so.
There are days when Daniel works from home. He connects to work on line and sits at his work computer at home, working. Today was one of these days.
The nice thing is that we often have everyone at home these days. As watch dogs, all of us dogs mostly work from home. The cats as well, although some of their work is outdoors. Daniel can experience this when he works from home.
All in all, it was a good day.
Sweden has a new Cabinet. This is due to the result of the latest general election. It was formally inaugurated today at a meeting with the King.
The new Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson represents the same political party that Daniel and Paula do. They are happy, thus, I am too.
Paula and Daniel went to a meeting with the Swedish Kennel Club in Örebro tonight. It was an important meeting on the future of the club. A lot of people had announced in advance that they would come, but only a few showed up. A lot of the food became leftovers.
It was embarasing for the Örebro län Kennel Club, where Paula and Daniel are members of the board, that there were so few who showed up, when so many had said they were interested in coming. I wonder why people do this. The meeting was important and these people had showed that they wanted to come. What did everybody do instead? Life is full of questions.
We got up early today, for being a Saturday. It was around 7 o’clock. The good thing was that we could go out, then just go back to bed to continue our rest. The even better thing is that I said I did not have to go outside, and was allowed to stay in bed. I was tired, so this was good.
Morran did the same thing as I did. The others got out, then came in and went back to bed. I believe Morran and I had the better morning.
Paula and Daniel came back home late in the evening. They were at the theatre, watching a play, tonight.
I rather stay at home Tham going to a theatre. There may be so may humans there who would not want dogs there.
A Japanese rocket with a load of satellites deviated from its course. As a safety precausion, the self destruct was activated.
It is sad to read about this. Japanese engineering is usually very good, the things built usually has high quality. It is like classic Japanese dogs, who are also usually of high quality. I hope the space agency do not lose to much money or reputation on this.
Daniel worked from home today, but in the evening, he and Paula went away from home. They had a very important meeting. Both of them are on the board of the regional kennel club, a part of the Swedish Kennel Club. This is the most important thing they do, except what they do for us dogs and the cats. When this is the reason they are not at home, we let them. We are proud of them.
The evening was uneventful at home. We watched the house, but nothing happened. We always wish this is thanks to our watch, but we cannot be sure.
Laila, our Poodle friend, is the oldest dog among us. She celebrated her thirteenth birthday today.
The good thing with birthdays is that we all get treats. There were dog candy and meatballs. We all enjoyed it immensely.
It is a good thing we are many dogs. This means there are many birthdays in a year, thus, a lot of days with treats.
Paula made pancake in the oven for dinner. She was not quite satisfied with the result, however, she said it was too flat.
It was very tasty, nevertheless. It was moderately cooked and had a nice colour. I liked the piece I got. The main thing is that it is tasty. Flat or not, tasty is the most important thing in a dish.
At the Japanese Grand Prix in Formula 1 today, Max Verstappen from the Netherlands, drivning for Red Bull Racing from Austria, became world champion. He won the race, while his closest competitor came in third. This means Verstappen now has such a huge points advantage that nobody can pass him in the standings.
It was nice that the championship was decided in Japan. This is a great country, home of the Shiba breed. The race was very well organised, as usual. It rained, but this happen.
The UK came second in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Ukraine won. The winner country have the right to host next year’s contest, but due to the war, Ukraine will not be able to. The UK will host it instead. It has now been announced that the contest will be held in Liverpool.
Peanut is happy the UK will host the contest. He says the UK should have won, but that people gave Ukraine a lot of votes just to show sympathy due to the war. This may be true, but you can never be certain. We all believe it will be a nice TV show, nevertheless. I just hope there will be more songs relations to dogs.
A former pet shop owner in Japan has been arrested on suspicions of smuggling many small monkeys from Thailand to Japan. The monkeys could bring diseases. The smuggling itself was cruel. Apparently, small monkeys are sought after in Japan and can be sold for high prices.
If people in Japan want pets, isn’t it better to get dogs? There is no country in the world with more Shibas than Japan. Humans can never get better pets than Shibas. Then they would not face the risk of buying smuggled monkeys or dogs.
Morran is often, but not always, one of us who takes a longer morning walk. She did not come along yesterday morning or the morning before, but she came along today. This had its downsides. Morran is a nice friend and all, but she often wants to walk slower than the rest of us. She did this this morning as well.
At last, the rest of us grew tired of the slow pace and turned around to cut the walk short and go home. This got Morran going. As soon as she realised we were taking the quickest way home, she changed to a higher gear and we could all have a nice pace back home for the rest of the walk.
Walks are best when you have a nice pace. It is a shame that we did not have a nice pace until the short cut back home.
I love Morran, nevertheless.
Electrical cords are funny. They have the perfect shape and texture to chew upon, but if you do, your humans get angry, because you can easily break them.
Pepe had found an electric cord this evening, but Daniel took it away from him. Needless to say, Pepe was disappointed.
Electric cords should be manufactured in a way that they will not break if dogs chew upon them.
Human scientists have just learned that dogs can detect human stress by our noses.
This is, of course, nothing new for us dogs. We know what we can detect through smell. There are occasions when I just have to remind myself how much more we can detect by smelling it than humans can ever understand. Humans have other qualities, however. We make each other complete.
Paula called home really early this morning. It was around a quarter to 4, and the staff at the hospital were done with her, so she wanted to come home. Daniel got up and drove off to get Paula home, while the rest of us stayed at home watching the house. In about forty minutes, they were back home.
Daniel changed the time of his alarm clock. He could not stand the thought of just sleeping for another hour. He got up at eight and started to work around nine. This also made for a later and shorter morning walk than usual, which suited me fine. The day turned out nicely, regardless of the very early morning. This was good.
Paula is not at home tonight. She had to go to the hospital, it had something to do with the heart.
Paula has a big heart of gold. It should manage. We are not afraid.
Paula had a hamburger for dinner, but did not finish it. This meant she left parts of it for us dogs to taste. I liked it. Hamburgers are great food.
I wish we could have gotten more than just taste bits. Sure, we had already eaten, but tasty food is always tasty food. More of it would have been even better. I am grateful for what I got, nevertheless, one can always wish for more. It might come another day.
We got up earlier than we usually do this morning, because Daniel would take an early train to Solna, close to Stockholm. This was in the line of duty. He came back home to Örebro in the afternoon, but went directly to a meeting. This meeting went on for a couple of hours, then Daniel returned home.
I do not envy a busy day like this. Fortunately, my duty is normally at home, watching the house and so on. This means I do not have to take train rides for several kilometres. My duties are important, but on a day like today, easier than Daniel’s. I like this.
Daniel had two meetings this evening. Both were on line, so he was at home. The later meeting was very late, however. It started at 19:30 and went om for an hour. I am glad we did not have to wait to get food until after the meeting, as Daniel did himself. Now it is time to rest, hopefully to go to sleep. Life is good when you have had food and can go to sleep.
We had thunder and heavy rain in the afternoon. Thunder is unusual this late in the year, but not unheard of. If there is thunder, you hear it. We had a cozy time inside.
Daniel has been working at a dog show today. This was most probably the last show of the year where he were supposed to work. Summer is over and the season for outdoor dog shows is almost over as well. There are not many dog shows in the winter, because there are few indoor facilities big enough for dog shows. There will be a new season next year, however. This is good for everyone who likes dog shows and for every dog who needs dog show results that can be registered. Life goes on.
It is Friday night, and we got minced meat. This is about the best treats there are. I think this is much better than crisps or candy.
Taste varies, however. Some would rather have other kinds of treats. I can respect other tastes, even though I do not agree with them. It may leave more minced meat for me.
We watched a TV show with Paula tonight, where humans would run an obstacle course. For dogs, this is called agility.
I have never really understood the joy of obstacle courses. If there is ever an obstacle in my way, I rather walk around it, than try to pass it. This is the most intelligent way, in my mind. The TV show was rather funny this way, because everybody took the obstacles dead serious. It was better watching it than to participate, anyway.
Paula and Daniel have discussed contracts for electricity. They might change suppliers of electricity.
While Paula and Daniel know how to make and control fire, they purchase electricity. Daniel says that human control of electricity is of equal importance as human control of fire. I have got no reason to doubt him, even though I do not know much about electricity. It provides heat and light, et cetera, which is good, I just do not know how. It is good to have humans who know.
Daniel has a cough. This is annoying, not only for him. It disturbs everyone when he coughs. This is usually the early stages of a cold, which is a common virus infection with humans.
Dogs never have coughs. I do not know why, but I am thankful for it. When Daniel coughs, I wish the same would be the case for humans.
For the first time in many weeks, we have had a lazy Sunday. There were some Sundays in August when Daniel worked at dog shows, then he campaigned for the election. Last Sunday was election day, and he went around to different places where votes were cast, inspecting them, since he is a member of the city’s election board.
This Sunday, there was some cleaning and then Paula and Daniel went to visit a friend. In the morning, we did not need an alarm to wake up early. In the evening, we all could just take it easy. Life felt good today.
It is autumn, but a couple of flies are still flying around inside our house. They are really annoying. Peanut tries to catch them with his mouth. Daniel tries to hit them with news papers. One of the good things about autumn is that the annoying flying insects go away. These flies have not understand that they are supposed to go away, since it is autumn. I hope that this will soon cross their minds.
It was time for Peanut to take a bath this morning. At least, this was what Daniel thought, since Peanut had roller himself in horse manure on the morning walk. Peanut did not like to take the bath, but he had to.
I am glad I did not have to take a bath. I knew this was a probable outcome of rolling in horse manure. Peanut later asked why I did not warm him, but he learns better if he faces the consequences.
Life is good in a Shiba coat, because you seldom have to take baths.
Mourners can pay their respect to the late Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. We watched some of the procession on TV. It was very graceful. Peanut mourned the most, it was his queen.
Long live the King of the United Kingdom!
There was a party meeting late tonight, which Daniel attended. It dragged on and on. We wished he could have sent us a message that it did drag on and on. When he finally got home, he told us it had been an important meeting, as if this had stopped him from Sindings a short message that he would be late. Now that he is home, we can finally take it easy and go to sleep.
The election result from yesterday was very close. Nobody is quite sure that the predicted result will be the final result. Some votes will arrive late and will not be country until Wednesday. Until then, we do not know which parties can form a cabinet. The preliminary result lean towards a conservative prime minister, but we will have to see later in this week. The thrill is still with us. This is exciting, isn’t it?
It is a very close election for the Swedish Parliament today. For the moment, it looks like a majority for the opposition, but nothing is clear yet. We will have to see what happens.
There was an error message on the washing mashine. It turned out that the drain had been clogged. Daniel unscrewed it and got rid of the dirt that had clogged it.
I am glad I have such a great Shiba coat it does not have to be washed nearly as often as Paula’s and Daniel’s clothes.
The late Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom has also been famous for her dogs. Most of them have been of the breed Welsh Corgi. A lot of these dogs have been bred by HM the Queen herself.
It is not yet clear what will happen to the Queen’s dogs. Perhaps family members will take care of them, or some of her staff who know the dogs will.
No matter what happens, I am sorry for their loss of a beloved human and wish them well.
The Kennel Club have issued a statement about the Queen, highlighting her love for dogs and her breeding. (Note that, while some people say the Queen created a new breed called ”Dorgi” after an accidental cross breed at the royal court, if you search The Kennel Club site for ”Dorgi”, it gives 0 results. Thus, there is no breed called ”Dorgi”.)
Hello, Peanut here!
Karatuhl has been kind enough to let me write a blog post today, because I was born a Briton.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories have passed away. This is horrible, but the Kingdom prevails. Her oldest son, Charles, is now King Charles III of the United Kingdom and his other Realms and Territories.
The Queen is dead, long live the King!
Paula and Daniel went over to Paula’s parents, to celebrate Paula’s mother. It is her birthday today.
We had a celebration at home as well. All of us dogs got minced meat in the evening. This was great.
We watched a weather forecast on TV tonight, where they said there might be frost tomorrow morning. Frost in the mornings in September is not unusual where we live, but it proves that autumn is here, and winter is coming.
Paula and Daniel hope that this winter will not be cold. The price on electricity will be high, thus, also, the price for warming our house. I want a lot of snow, because it is fun to play in and makes for less dark winter days and nights. Snow on the roof helps to isolate the house against the cold. We will have to see how the winter will be.
Daniel got up earlier than usual today. He would campaign early for the upcoming election. He told me and Peanut that we did not have to go on a morning walk this early, if we did not want to. We wanted to. Thus, Daniel did take us out for an early morning walk. We all enjoyed it. Morning walks are nice.
The new Artemis rocket for the upcoming Moon missions have technical difficulties. There is a fuel leak and repairs have to be made before any launch can be made.
I look forward to new Moon missions. My name is Full Moon Eclipse, and I am interested in the Moon. Will humans walk on the Moon again before my life is over? I sincerely hope so.
Russia held military parades on three islands illegally occupied from Japan after the Second World War. The Soviet Union seized the islands after the Japanese surrender, but maintained it was fair spoils of war. Russia has continued to claim the same. Japan claims the islands, but Russia keeps troops there.
One of the positive outcomes of the Russian war against Ukraine may be that more people become aware of Russian occupations of territory in other parts of the world. More nations should condemn all of Russia’s occupations. I do, but my voice does not amount to much in the big world.
There were some interesting pictures of giant hail stones that fell in Spain just recently.
Hail is an unusual and interesting form of weather. I am still glad that we have never had hail like this by us.
There have been some complaints across social media that summer ends with the end of August. I do not agree that this is something to complain about. Autumn is also a great season. In many ways, autumn is better than summer. You do not have the flies and other insects around, bugging you. The temperatures are never too warm in your coat. The air is often fresh and nice. I like autumn. I will never complain that summer ends and autumn begins.
It is getting darker in the evenings. We had the lights on above the front porch, when we went out for the night tonight. Autumns are cozy, dogs can see almost as well in night light as in daylight. It is still nice to have the lights on, so Paula and Daniel can see what happens.
Daniel got up very early this morning. The aim was to participate in a morning campaign with his political party, since there is a general election in just a couple of weeks. I am glad we did not have to go on a morning walk this early.
It will be better after the election. We believe Daniel will be at home more often then.
US warships sail in international waters between China and Taiwan. This is a good thing, the USA is a good force who helps protect the democracies of Taiwan and Japan against China. There is tension in the area, the good forces must not back down, but I hope for less tension.
We cleaned and took care of trash today. This is a good thing about the days when Daniel is not at work, he is good at cleaning.
Piffy helped Daniel cook lunch. Unfortunately, it was not to Paula’s taste. I wonder if she would have liked the food better, if I or anyone of the other dogs would have helped Daniel. I do not think so, I think the fault was in the cooking skills of Daniel.
Prices go up, everything is getting more expansive. You get less goods for your money. It is inflation.
We do not just have inflation in Sweden, it is all across the world. They have it in Japan as well. However, even though inflation gets higher in Japan, it is not as hick as in Sweden.
Daniel says inflation is made worse by raised taxes. This is why the conservative opposition needs to win the election in Sweden on the 11 September, he says, because the conservative Moderate Party will not raise taxes. I am not so sure, the Moderate Party has raised taxes before. On the other paw, every other Swedish party has politics for higher taxes than the Moderate Party has. We have to see what will happen in the election.
Daniel was early paying the bills this month. There is always disagreement between Paula and Daniel on how early the bills must be paid. Daniel wants to play them earlier than Paula wants to. He thinks it is best to have it done, whereas Paula believes in paying each bill on the last day. Paula’s strategy may be better, if the interest rates will go up a lot. With higher interest rates, you lose money if you pay too soon. So far, the interest rates are not that high. We hope they will not be, especially not on the mortgage, but we will have to see what happens.
This is the Independence Day of Ukraine. This is extra important now, when Ukraine fights a war against Russia to protect its independence. We all hope Ukraine will win the war. Russia is a country with a regime which is not nice. Throughout history, Russia has often been an enemy of Sweden as well as other neighbouring countries. Russian aggression has to stop. This would also benefit the Russian people. Peace is also important for the dogs who live there. Go, Ukraine!
All of us dogs and cats thought we would have a big party today, when Paula celebrated her birthday. This did not occur. For some reason, Paula felt very sad today and did not want to do much. Perhaps she felt old, felt like she has lost too many years? Nevertheless, she did not party. We did get some sausage in the evening, which was good. I hope Paula will feel better tomorrow.
We have started to celebrate Paula’s birthday. It is actually tomorrow, but it is Swedish tradition to celebrate on the eve before the day. This may not be true for birthdays, but it is for Christmas, New Year, Easter, Walpurgis, and Midsummer. It is only logical to extensivt this tradition to birthdays. Life gets better this way.
Daniel worked as a ring steward today. When he came back home, he brought pizza. We got some pizza for dinner. Pizza is tasty, except that I could not understand why Paula had chosen to have bananas on her.
It is a work day tomorrow again. Daniel has worked both last weekend and this weekend with dog shows and in the week at his day job and campaigns for the election. He should spend more time at home and rest with us, I believe.
I usually write in my blog using an app on a writing tablet. The app is a little strange, though. It normally works fine, but if you turn the tablet or move it in any other simple way, the app area where you write the text changes and becomes smaller and weird. I do not know why. I cannot imagine anyone wants this feature. If it is a bug, however, I wonder why they have not been able to remove it in the years when the app has behaved this way. App programmers may just have a weird sense of humour.
The Japanese national tax agency campaigns to make young people drink more alcohol. Tax revenue from the taxens on alcoholic beverages are down, because younger Japanese drink less than the elderly.
The campaign has been critizised for promoting less healthy habits. On the other paw, it promotes traditional Japanese beverages like sake. The promotion of that which is traditional in Japan is something I can support. My dog breed, the Shiba, is a traditional Japanese breed.
Heavy rainfalls are expected all across Japan. While rain is good for the supply of water to plants, wildlife, dogs, and humans, there can be too much of it. There are risks of floods and landslides in Japan. I hope for the best for all who live there.
We have had some days with hot weather. This afternoon, we had thunder. It came and went a few times. Thunder and lightning is exciting, but I did not see any lightning this time. I guess the lightning was too far away from us.
All he rain is welcome. We have our own well which can always use water.
In the month to come, Daniel will be away quite some time. He will spend a lot of time campaigning for the political party of which he is a member. There is a general election on the 11 September. We hope he will be happy with the result.
This evening, Daniel came home late. This was because he had spent about two hours campaigning.
Daniel was away this weekend, working at the dog show in Askersund. He is home again now. It feels better when everyone is at home, even though work for a dog show is about the best reasons there are to be away.
I am a show champion since many years, so I did not have to go to the dog show.
It is supposed to be many meteoroids visible in THE sky tonight. I prefer to stay indoors, trying to sleep, instead of watching for them.
Rumour has it, you may make a wish that Will come true, when you see a meteoroid. I think this is just human superstition.
We have got more treats than usual today. At first, I thought this was a good thing. Then Paula said to Daniel they did not have to give us as much dog food as usual, because we had had so much treats.
There is no good things that does not also come with bad things, I believe.
Daniel has packes the car for the dog show this weekend. This is different from when some of us dogs will be shown. Daniel go there as one of the organisers and will bring prizes et cetera in his car.
This evening, we learned that one of the judges had got covid-19 and has had to withdraw from the show. We still do not know how this will work out, but work is in progress.
I hope everything will go well.
It is seventy-seven years to the day since the atom bomb was dropped and exploded over Hiroshima in Japan.
It is said that the atom bombs helped to shorten the war, thus, saving lives. Critics say you cannot be sure of this and the bomb was too horrible anyway. It was dropped over a city, which caused many civilians to die. If lives were saved in the long run and the war turned shorter, this is good. By the end of the war, there were just a few Shibas left and the breed had to be carefully resurected. With a longer war, who knows if any Shibas would have been left alive?
In Hiroshima today, people held manifestations for peace. This is positive.
On the morning after the thunder storm of last night, we could Concorde that we had had 27 millimetres of rain. This is a lot for one day. We were happy for the water levels underground, with our well and all.
Rain is a good thing, as long as you do not have to be out in it.
In the evening, we had thunder and heavy rain.
None of us are affraid of thunder. Pepe barked at it angrily, though, as if this would make the thunderstorm go away. He does have self confodence, the little Chihuahua boy.
Rain has come and gone today. It was as if someone sat in the sky turning the rain on and off and on and off. The weather can be curious sometimes.
As long as I am indoors, I like rain. It is cozy to listen at it. We mostly managed to go out between the showers, which was good.
I hope the weather is less unpredictable tomorrow.
Daniel has created a little more room in the yard for us dogs to run around in. He cut down some branches from two of the trees there. This actually improved the matter most for him and Paula, since we dogs easily go under most branches. It is better for us too, but I guess Daniel did it mostly for his own sake. Another advantage is that this brings more light to the ground. This is nice and it might help the grass there.
Pepe was in the yard with Daniel as Daniel cut down the branches. According to Pepe, he did a great deal of the work, helping Daniel a lot. I believe this as much as I want to.
August is here, the last month of summer by the calendar. You can see that it is getting dark earlier in the evening. We know that autumn is coming.
There was a short rain early in the day. Rain is not uncommon in the summer, but it still feels more like autumn weather.
It is still summer, though. There is still no need to light the house up every evening. We should be happy for the long hours of daylight and warm days that are still to come.
I am in heat. Not as strongly as I used to be in my youth, but still. This is a little annoying. I really do not want to be controlled by my hormones like this. I am a grandmother and I do not like the idea of getting another litter of pups. The sex drive is still there, though. How can I control it? Paula and Daniel help me by closing gates between me and the males. Hormones are bitches, aren’t they?
In the qualifying to the Hungary Grand Prix in formula 1 today, Briton George Russell was the fastest in the final qualifying round. He will start first. He drives for Mercedes and his team mate Lewis Hamilton was seventh, so this was a great effort by him.
Peanut was happy with the result. He was born in England and always roots for British formula 1 drivers. Mercedes is a German car, but Peanut said the Germans could not come up with a good enough driver. I guess he has a point, now that four time world champion Sebastian Vettel has announced that he will resign by the end of the year and there are no other German front runners.
We will have to see if George Russell manages to win the race as well.
Both Paula and Daniel are having colds. They have some throats and cough now and then. I guess Paula is worse of than Daniel, but this might be because she got the cold before he did.
Colds are due to viruses, not cold weather, so it is not uncommon to get them in the summer.
I hope they get well soon. On the plus side, Daniel will not go away this weekend to work as a ring steward. It is always best when everyone is at home, I think.
Paula found an old box of crackers today. She or Daniel had put it in an odd place and it had been forgotten. The expiration date was passed.
I took care of the crackers, disposing of all of them. Strangely, though, this made Paula upset. She told me she had wanted all of the dogs to dispose of the old crackers. I cannot understand why she was so upset, just because I performed this hard task myself, saving the other dogs from it. I did them a service, they did not need to dispose of old crackers.
As we say in Swedish sometimes: otack är den armes lön.
Our Chihuahua friends Piffy, Viola, and Pepe went to the veterinarian today. Chihuahuas need to have a veterinarian’s paper on good knees, before they are bred. Now they have documents on the status of their knees. This is good.
Sweden plays England in the UEFA Euro 2022 football championship.
Most of us root for Sweden, of course. Peanut roots for England, however. This is because he was bred and born there. Since he was, it is understandable that he roots for England. At the same time, this only makes me more eager to see a Swedish victory, so I can tease Peanut about it.
It is an exciting game, regardless of whom you root for.
Daniel had planned to mow the lawn tomorrow. He is not sure he can, though. We got a lot of rain this afternoon and the lawn is probably to wet to mow tomorrow.
I guess rain is a good excuse to push the plans for mowing the lawn forward to a later day.
The Japanese volcano Sakurajima has erupted. The people living close by are warned of falling rocks.
I hope the dogs and humans of the area will make it.
Volcanos are fascinating mountains, where the hot interior of the Earth comes up to the surface. I am still happy we live far away from the closest volcano. It would not be nice to have to fear falling rocks.
We had a lot of rain yesterday. It was cold for the season today, so many raindrops stayed on the grass. When the lawn is wet, it cannot be properly mowed. Hence, Daniel did not mow the lawn, but stayed indoors with the rest of us.
We had a nice, lazy day. This is my kind of summer day.
Sweden plays Belgium in its quarter final of the Euro 2022 in football.
My maternal grandfather’s father was from Belgium. He was from Norway himself, and always rooted for Norway in sports, but he held Belgium as his second favourite. I have always lived in Sweden and root for Sweden. For the sake of my grandfather and his Belgian father, however, I must say that I would not be very sad to see Belgium win.
Go, Sweden!
Paula made some pop corn tonight. I got to taste some. When the bowl was almost empty, I told Daniel I needed the rest of the pop corns in order to be inspired for my next blog post. Daniel thought I made a good argument, so he gave me the bowl. This was great: pop corns and some butter. I have nice humans.
Hello, Piffy here!
Karstuhl has allowed me to write a blog entry on ice cream and popsicles. Daniel had an ice cream cone with vanilla ice cream and toffee. Paula had a popsicle with taste of pear. I got to taste both of them.
There was a bit of chocolate in the ice cream cone. As a dog, I cannot eat this. The ice cream and the toffee was very tasty.
I could have eaten the whole popsicle, if it had not been so big. It was also very tasty.
What was the best? Both were tasty, but different from one another. If I have to pick a favourite, it would be the popsicle. It lasts longer than an ice cream and I could eat everything from it. On a warm summer day like today, it was also more refreshing and made me cooler than the ice cream cone. Of a scale of five paw prints, I give the popsicle five and the ice cream cone four. I would gladly get more of any of these another day.
Paula and Daniel have beds where they can make parts rise with an electric motor, then lower these parts again. It is comfortable for them to be able to sit up supported by the bed occasionally, but lie down on other occasions. The function has not worked properly for a while, but Paula has arranged for it to work again. It is fun to go up and down with the bed once in a while. Life is better in the bed now.
Sweden won its last game in the group versus Portugal, 5-0, in the UEFA European Championship in football. With this result, Sweden won the group and will get an easier opponent in the quarter final than the group second the Netherlands. We are all happy for this result. Peanut still says he hopes England will win the gold, however. He is free to think so, but I hope Sweden will win.
Paula and Daniel hid some candy in the bed room. When they both left, Peanut dig the candy out. He got a lot, I also got some.
Paula and Daniel were mad at us, but if they leave candy, it is ours to take, I believe. It was tasty. I am not ashamed.
The UEFA European Championship had a game with England versus Northern Ireland today. We wanted to watch it. Peanut was especially eager, since England is his country of birth. The TV channel aired the Norway versus Austria instead. We were so disappointed, we turned the TV off.
The England game was aired too, but on a channel we do not have.
In the afternoon, we had a short shower of rain. A little later, we could hear thunder far away. We never got thunder close by, never saw any lightning. Weather can be more exciting than this. I wish it were today. It was a rather uneventful day over all.
Paula came back home again this afternoon.
Piffy came along, when Daniel went to get Paula. I was a little envious of this, but it passed. Now we all have access to Paula again. Life is good when we all are together.
There is a new rise in the spread of the virus infection covid-19. Chances are that the new version of the virus is not as lethal as the former versions, and that the general spread of vaccines among humans can save many of them. No new restrictions are planned in Sweden.
There is a new rise in Japan as well, but no new restrictions are planned there either.
It is good that covid-19 is not so dangerous anymore. You cannot ignore it, but you do not have to change your life because of it either. More dogs will have their humans spared from serious illness.
Daniel started to work again today, so we went out on the morning walk as early as we usually do on his work days. This is earlier than we have gone out during his days off. Pepe said it was too early for him, so he did not come along.
This was a bit disappointing, as a rule of dew claw on walks is: the more, the merrier. (Dew claws is what dogs have instead of thumbs.) Pepe did not care, he rather stayed at home. We let him. Perhaps he changes his mind until tomorrow morning.
Daniel will go back to work tomorrow. His two week vacation did not turn out the way he planned, because Paula had to stay at the hospital. He did not go on the five day journey that was the plan. However, he says there are advantages with this as well. He has had time to take care of some things at home that he might not have managed to do otherwise. He has also spent more time with us dogs. I like this latter statement. I also like it that Daniel has been at home.
The UEFA European Championship in football for ladies has started. Sweden plays its first game versus the Netherlands tonight.
We all root for Sweden. I hope Botan does, as well, the Aangenaam dog who moved to the Netherlands as a pup. He must remember where he comes from.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been shot and killed. This happened as he Held a special in the campaign of a candidate for the election in two days.
This is horrible news from a country where politics is usually peaceful, even in the instances when controversial issues are debated.
My thoughts go to Shinzo Abe’s dog and the rest of his family.
Pepe came along on our morning walk for the first time yesterday, as I wrote about then. This morning, he did the same. Daniel has not had to ask him, he just walks along out to the door, so he is allowed to walk with us. Is Pepe a new regular participant on our morning walks? He will not say, when I ask him. I guess we will just have to see. It is nice to have his company as well on the walks.
We had a late morning today, so the morning walk was later than ordinary. This is not strange. When Daniel has a vacation, he often sleeps until later than usual in the morning. The odd thing was that Pepe, our Chihuahua friend, decided that he wanted to come along on our walk. The Chihuahuas usually take shorter walks. Pepe did good, it was nice to have his company as well on the walk. We will have to see if he comes along tomorrow morning as well. I would not mind.
We got another snow shovel today. A used one, but fully functional. A neighbour of Paula’s father gave it to him, but he did not need it, so we got it. We have a considerably longer drive way, so we can put it to use.
It may be odd to think of snow shovels at this time of the year, in the very height of summer. However, if you get a snow shovel for free, and you know it can be useful in the winter, the best thing is to say yes, thank you, to it. The snow shovel is a good invention.
Paula is not well, again. She is admitted to the hospital, again.
We all miss Paula, again. It is always more empty at home, when she is not around. We wish for her Quick recovery.
We may think we have a warm summer. It is, however, warmer in other places, not just due south.
In Tokyo, they have had a record streak of nine days with temperatures above 35˚ C. This is a city by the sea with a climate normally about the same as western Europe. I hope the dogs in Tokyo are taken well care of in a heat wave like this. Japanese humans like dogs, so I am sure they generally are.
In America, ”football” means a different sport than in the rest of the world. This sport is played in Sweden as well, where we usually call it ”American football”. (Some people call the sport handegg, because it is played with a ball that is more shaped like an egg than a sphere, and played more with your hands than with your feet.)
Today, the American football team from our town, Örebro Black Knights, won its semi final in the Swedish championship and will play the final next weekend. This is far from such a great event as the American Super Bowl, but a final is always a final. We hope they win the gold.
We watched some news from the allround Swedish Championship week in Linköping this week. They had a piece about a doping dog, Molly. She is trained at discovering illegal doping substances. This is great for the fairness of sports. It is also great for the public perception of dogs. I liked watching this.
The 1 July was the birthday of my late maternal grandfather. It is also the anniversary of the marriage of Paula’s parents. They have been married for exactly fifty years today. This is a long time.
Paula and Daniel went to congratulate her parents. They brought greetings form all of us dogs and cats. The celebrations were small, with just the immediate family, but everyone had a lot of fun.
Humans are lucky they can live so long.
Daniel has a vacation and we all took a slow, lazy day today. We did not do anything in particular.
To some degree, this is what a vacation should be about. Life is good.
Japan is not a member of NATO. Situated in the North West Pacific Ocean, a North Atlantic alliance does not suit Japan. Nevertheless, Japan is a democracy with rule of law and a great champion of human rights. The rules guarding personal data in Japan are good enough that Japan has a decision from the EU commission on adequate protection of personal data. Japan could easily be an ally of Sweden. Japan is a friendly nation. When Sweden and Finland is about to become members of NATO, Japan welcomes this.
This makes me happy. As a Shiba, my ancestors are from Japan. As a Swedish dog since birth, my heart pounds equally for Sweden and Japan. When Japan hails Sweden as a new member of NATO as a great thing, this is great. I would like to read more happy news like this.
We did not only get rain this afternoon, we also got lightning and thunder. Fortunately, none of us are affraid of thunder, I know some dogs are. To me, thunder is merely a sound that can be annoying if it is too loud when I am trying to sleep.
Nature needed the rain, after many days of warm weather and sunshine. It is also a little less warm weather now, which pleases me. It is a good summer.
Paula visited the hospital today, because she has not been feeling well for many weeks. We were affraid that she would stay at the hospital, but she came back home in the late afternoon.
It is not nice when Paula stays at the hospital. This has happened before. We are happy it did not happen today. Hopefully, the help she got today will make her feel better.
Apparently, the Queen of the United Kingdom loves the British iconic fast food fish and chips. She has it made for her, or have a footman go out to pick it up from a nearby restaurant. She is not into luxurious versions, though she prefers the fish with just breadcrumbs rather than heavy batter.
I love fish and I like chips, so I can fully understand the love of fish and chips. Peanut also says this is yet another proof that the Queen of the United Kingdom is the best monarch. He comes from England, so I understand why he says so. While I like the British Queen, I hold the King of Sweden and the Emperor of Japan in higher regard. I wonder what Swedish staple food the King of Sweden loves, and what Japanese staple food the Emperor loves.
Our thoughts today go to the Norwegians, their next of kin, and dogs, who fell victim to a shooter in a gay bar in Oslo. Two humans were killed and twentyone were injuried. The shooter has been arrested and will be prosecuted for murder. Apparently, he was a Norwegian citizen, but with roots in Iran. There are suspicions that he did this for Islamist causes.
I do not know how many dogs there were, whose humans were affected. The news have not told us. I hope they will all get through this, however.
It is Midsummer Eve, one of the great festivity days in Sweden. We celebrate summer and the long days and short, white nights.
Daniel gave us dogs pickled herring on our dog food today. This is great food and fitting, since it is the food that humans traditionally eats on their Midsummer Eve parties.
Happy Midsummer, everyone!
Japan has just recently made it mandatory for breeders and other humans who have dogs and cats to put a microchip in the animal. The microchip must be registered and this will make it much easier to find the human family members of a lost dog or cat.
We have had rules like this for microchips for many years in Sweden. You may say it is unnecessary or an invasion of privacy. I think it is good. If I would ever find myself lost, I know my microchip would help me to return home. It also helps when dogs or cats cross borders or go to dog shows, they can be identified this way. Not least, it is a way to fight dog smugglers.
The Japanese dogs and cats will be safer with these new rules.
This evening, Daniel was supposed to be on a meeting. He received a telephone call reminding him, because he had forgotten about the time when it would start. He rushed away.
I am never late for meetings. It is easy to avsides being late for meetings, when you never have meetings.
Rain fell heavily on our roof yesterday afternoon. It sounded like so much that I wrote about it in my blog entry yesterday.
This morning, the rain gauge did not hold more water than 1/2 millimetre. What had happened with all the rest of the rain? We discussed this on the morning walk. None of us believed anybody else had trespassed on our lot and emptied the rain gauge. Indeed, it was not fully empty, which we believed was evidence against this theory. We also did not believe the water would have vaporised. The theory that stuck with us, was that it had indeed been a heavy rainfall, but a very short one, and that we had not received more than 1/2 millimetre of rain, because of this.
If you have a different theory, please let us know.
The Supreme Court in Japan has ruled (3-1 with four judges) that the government has no responsibility for the disaster when a tsunami hit the Fukushima power plant in 2011.
The plaintiffs had argued that the government could have ordered the owners of the power plant to build protections against tsunamis, because of the knowledge of the probability of such tsunamis. The defendant claim was that such protection would not have helped, due to the tsunami that actually struck Fukushima.
Most nuclear power plants in Japan have not been restarted after 2011, but some have.
It is sad that in a country where there are historical evidence of great tsunamis striking the east coast before, the nuclear power plant was not sufficiently protected. Old stones with text high up from the coast give evidence of how far tsunamis of previous centuries reached. I do not know of all the evidence of the court case. Some lower courts had put blame on the government, others had not. There was one justice in the Supreme Court who did not agree with the others. Despite my uncertainties, and the need to respect the ruling of the Supreme Court, I do believe the government should have been to blame, to some extent.
If you have a lot of money and wish to have a uniquely painted sculpture of the comic strip Beagle Snoopy, from Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz, now may be the time. There is an auction in the UK where these sculptures are for sale. The proceeds go to dog welfare, so it is for a good cause.
Unfortunately for me, I do not have a lot of money. If I did, I would probably make a bid fordonen of the sculptures. It would make a fine addition to all the other fine things in our yard.
Summer is here and we have a warm and sunny day. It is so warm, that Paula made sure the window in our bedroom was open. This is good, it gives us fresh air. Life is good in the summer.
Paula went away today to celebrate her nephew Arvid and niece Nadja. They finished School for the year and have summer vacation now.
I guess there was cake at the celebration. The biggest lover of cake is Daniel, but he was not there, he had to be at work. When he came home, he was disappointed for missing out on the cake. I can understand him. This is as if I would have had the opportunity to get minced meat, but had to work instead. Life is harsh sometimes.
The weather forecasts for both yesterday and today have said there would be a lot of rain. We have hardly had any rain, however.
It is probably hard to make weather forecasts. They often turn out to be wrong. I do not envy the people doing them. Fortunately, however, we are not very dependent on the forecasts. I can see positive things about most kinds of weather.
This evening, Daniel was at a political meeting. He wrote the minutes from it, which he finished after coming home. It was a little boring that he did not want to spend time with us until he was finished. Afterwards, everything was as it usually is again. Then it was a nice night.
Daniel had a ber tonight with a great bottle. It could only have been better with a Shiba.
My material grandfather Kuro would have been pleased today. He was born in Norway and always rotes for his country of birth in sports.
Sweden played Norway in football, UEFA Nations League, today. Norway had home turf, but recently won on Sweden’s home turf as well. The result was 3-2 to Norway.
Sweden is not very good in football this year. It will turn to the better, it usually does. We have traditions to defend in football, and the traditions also make for a good basis to become better.
It is exactly three months to the Swedish general election, the 11 September 2022. Some polls indicate that there might be a new majority in parliament for a new cabinet after the election, other polls indicate the opposite. Many voters decide late, so the polls may not be good prognoses. My main hope is that the elected politicians will make decisions that are good for dogs. We will have to see what happens.
Daniel’s Facebook account has been hacked. Some ill meaned human has stolen it.
This is ironic, since Daniel works with information security as a Data Protection Officer. He will have to improve his own security.
🇦🇽
It is the 9 June, the day of self governance on the Ã…land Islands in the Baltic Sea. I have been there on a dog show. It is a nice part of the world, a fairly bog island with an archipelago around it. Ã…land is the only place in the world where Swedish is the only official language. You could claim it should belong to Sweden, but as long as it is part of Finland, it strengtenth the Swedish language in Finland. This is good.
Late last night, the Ipad just turned silent. No matter what Daniel did to get the sound going again, it stayed silent. Then, all of a sudden, after a little less than an hour, the sound came back. We still have no idea what the reason was for the silence, nor why the sound came back. Electronics work in mysterious ways sometimes.
Daniel is working with the contracts for the ring stewarts for the Askersund dog show in August. It is not always easy. Most ring stewarts accept the terms, but then there are those who do not. Some have special demands or cannot give a straight answer to important questions. Danielis more patient with the ring stewarts than I would be. I wish it turns out great in the end.
Our national holiday 6 June is in remembrance of the election of King Gustavus I as king on this date 1523. There must be more reasons to celebrate next year, when there is exactly five hundred years ago this happened. We will have to see if this will happen.
It is Pentecost, a big feast day in Christianity. It is, however, not very celebrated these days. I think any reason to celebrate is a good reason, so I think we should celebrate Pentecost more. A few more dog treats to any dogs in the households cannot hurt, can they?
At the initiative of Peanut, who was bornin England, we celebrated the 70 years anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Her Other Realms today. It is a great feat to be Head of State for more than seventy years. She is old even for human standarda, but still fit enough to fulfill most of her duties. Among humans, I would say only the Emperor of Japan is higher in rank than her.
Life is always good, when there is something to celebrate. Life was great today.
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom celebrates seventy years on the throne. This is an amazing feat. She has had a lot of help in her work as a Queen by her dogs of the Pembroke Welsh Corgi breed. Dogs can help any human who has a tough job.
Ukraine won against Scotland, but were not finished with the qualifications. They still have to play Wales, another British team.
Peanut says he only roots for the "main" British team, England, where he is from. England is already qualified. We will have to see if Wales or Ukraine goes on to the World Cup.
It is finally time for the qualification game between Scotland and Ukraine for the FIFA Football World Cup this year. The game was postponed when Ukraine was invaded by Russia. The war is still going on, but the qualifier have to be played sometime before the World Cup. Tonight is as good, or as bad, as any other night.
Most people probably root for Ukraine, because they sympathise with the defence war that Ukraine is fighting. Peanut roots for Ukraine, because he is English and cannot root for Scotland. Daniel roots for Scotland, however, since he normally roots for all British football teams. We will have to see what the result will be.
Daniel sat by the computer until late in the evening. We had to wait to go out for the night until he was done. He paid some bills, but more importantly, he spent a lot of time on plans and preparations for the Askersund dog show later this summer. We are proud that Daniel is trusted enough to do such important stuff as parts of the work for a dog show. Not many things in the world are more important than dog shows.
Daniel got up much earlier than he usually does today. This was in order to participate in a morning campaign for the election in September.
I did not mind goingon an earlier morning walk. It is so close to the summer solstice that it was daylight anyway, and all of us dogs could go back to sleep afterwards. I feel sorry for Daniel, though. He had a busy work day and got up early for this campaign. Life can be hard, but he chose it himself.
We got news from the USA that Marcus Ericsson won the Indy 500 of 2022 today. Marcus Ericsson is from Kumla just south of Örebro and lives in Örebro when he is in Sweden. Indy 500 is the most prestigious race in the American formula car series Indycar. Congratulations are in order.
Finland won the IIHF World Championship in ice hockey. This was the first gold won on home turf for Finland, after beating Canada 4-3 in over time.
I had hoped Canada would win, despite Finland being a neighbour of Sweden. This was because Canada was the team that knocked out Sweden of the tournament in the quarter final. It is less hurtfull to lose to the final winner of the tournament. However, I am happy for the Finns. We do have dogs from Aangenaam in Finland, but not in Canada, so it is more likely dogs from us really rooted for Finland than for Canada.
Our congratulations go to Finland.
Daniel went to a dog show alone today. He was contracted to be a ring steward for a Bull Mastiff specialty dog show.
I do not complain that I had to stay at home. My late mother, founder of this blog, loved dog shows and being shown on them. I have never shared this love. This one reason I made sure to become a show champion on three tries, so I did not have to go to more shows.
Daniel was pleased with the day, when he got home. He was tired and a little annoyed that there had been quite some rain. Over all, however, it had been good. This made mehappy for his sake. Good days are good, even though they make you tired.
This morning, we could see that we had had 17 mm of rain yesterday and last night. This is great for the vegetation and for the water in the ground that fills up our well.
The damper weather with more clouds makes it colder. We still hope for more rain, because it has been a relatively dry winter and spring. Perhaps it will be a rainy summer and the water wells will fill up well.
Water is important. I want a lot of water, as long as I do not have to take unnecessary baths.
Sweden did not make it past the quarter finals in this year's IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. Canada won in overtime, 4-3.
It is no shame to lose to Canada, one of the ice hockey great powers. Nevertheless, we are sad about the result, which means there is no chance that Sweden will win medals.
Czechia won against Germany, which was expected.
