Big Events In 2024

This post is about big events that happened to me or my family during 2024 and that I blogged about. I selected six events that stood out to me. They are sort of my 2024 blogging summary. Our pug Daisy died at the age of 15 ½ and we still miss her a lot. On April 8, 2024, we experienced the event of the year, the total solar eclipse. Dallas (where we live) was in the path of totality and the weather was clear. It was spectacular.  Then the largest newspaper trade association in the United States the National Newspaper Association (NNA, 2,300 newspapers) awarded a Dallas magazine that had written a review for my book “Le Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle” an honorable mention for best book review of the year. That was fourth place out of thousands of newspapers and magazines.

In August I launched a new blog, superfactful (please feel free to follow) and in September my oldest son and his wife and me traveled to Sweden and Norway where we saw a lot and encountered magical creatures. On October 21st, 2024, NBC news interviewed me about a tornado that ravaged our neighborhood five years ago.

We miss our Pug Daisy

On April 5th, 2024, our beloved pug Daisy took her last breath. She was 15 ½ years old. She had an enlarged heart, her back legs were giving out, and she had breathing problems. She took lots of different medications. Yet, the breathing crisis she had that morning came unexpectedly. Our veterinary told us it was time. It was a dark day for us, and we still miss her dearly. Our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo also seems to miss her and now he is alone. To read the tribute post I made for her click here.

Our pug is leaning on vent located close to our wood floor.
Daisy liked to sit in front of the vent when it was cold or alternatively too hot.

Total Solar Eclipse in Dallas

On April 8th, 2024, there was a total solar eclipse and Dallas, where we live, was in the path of totality, and we were lucky with the weather. A total solar eclipse is a totally different experience from a partial solar eclipse. Despite knowing this beforehand, and having seen a partial solar eclipse, I was amazed. As you approach totality you will have a partial solar eclipse, so you’ll experience both. The partial solar eclipse portion lasted for a few hours and totality lasted only four minutes, but during those four minutes the sun and the moon put on a spectacular show. For the event we had prepared a little party on our backyard patio.

A partial solar eclipse is interesting too. The shadows change during a partial solar eclipse. The shadows of the tree leaves look like moon crescents, but it is not dark, it is still daylight. The sun will look like a bright crescent if you are wearing solar eclipse glasses, but the light is too strong for you to see anything without glasses, and trying to look at the sun during a partial eclipse is dangerous.

When the total solar eclipse happened it suddenly got dark, but not midnight dark, more like late twilight. The stars came out, the birds and the crickets got quiet, Rollo hid under the table, it felt colder, and straight above us Venus came out bright and shining. You usually see Venus in the west soon after sunset or in the east before sun dawn, not above your head in the middle of the day. You could take off your solar eclipse glasses and look straight at the sun, because it was no longer very bright. What you saw was a big black circle surrounded by wispy foggy lights about as bright as the full moon, maybe a little brighter. That was the sun’s corona, which is only visible to the naked eye during a total solar eclipse. To read more about this event click here.

Black circle surrounded by a wispy white fog like light. That’s the sun’s corona.
We took many pictures (see below) but this is a good stock photo. Solar Eclipse Stock Photo ID: 2344355767 by aeonWAVE

Preston Hollow People Magazine receives a National Award for a Book Review of my Leonberger Book

In September 2023 a Dallas journalist wrote a half page positive book review for my book “Le Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”. In 2024 her and the newspaper/magazine received an honorable mention for Best Book Review (that’s 4th place) at the annual National Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest organized by The National Newspaper Association (NNA). NNA has 2,300 members (newspapers and magazines). I can add that Preston Hollow is an area in north Dallas. To read more about this, click here.

The book review of “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”. Including photos and text.
This is a photo of the page of Preston Hollow People Magazine where the review appeared. If you click on the picture (or click here you can see the online version of the book review in Preston Hollow People Magazine.

Launch of the Super Facts Blog

On August 5, 2024, I launched my new blog superfactful url https://superfactful.com.  The goal of this blog is to create a long list of facts that are important, not trivia, and that are known to be true and yet are either disputed by large segments of the public or highly surprising or misunderstood by many. These kinds of facts are special because they are important and at the same time there is a lot of  confusion around them, or they are shocking. Therefore, I call these facts super facts. I should say that in addition to super fact posts I am also posting about other interesting and fun information. My first post “Bamboozlement Misunderstandings, Big Surprises and My Journey” was not a super fact post. To read more click here .

Image showing a disintegrating brain
Smashing our old beliefs with new surprising facts, super facts. Expand your mind and teach me some unexpected truths. Shutterstock ID: 1685660680 by MattL_Images.

I can add that this site certainly needs more followers so feel free to subscribe. The subscribe button is on the right on a PC and at the bottom on a mobile device.

Scandinavian Adventure

In September 2024 I visited my native country Sweden and Norway with my oldest son and his new wife. We visited Stockholm, Uppsala, Oslo and Norwegian fjords. We saw palaces and castles, the old city in Stockholm (800 years old city on an island), we saw many museums including the Vasa Museum featuring an extremely well-preserved Swedish war ship that sank in 1628. We encountered a Huldra, a female magical creature, in the Norwegian mountains (OK this was a tourist ploy, but a fun one). To read more about our adventures click here, or here, or here.

Three people standing on a boat on the fjord. Left to right, me Thomas Wikman, my son Jacob and his wife Ashley.
From a cruise in Sognefjord, Norway. Left to right, me, my oldest son  and his wife. Click on the image to visit my post titled : “Tourism in Scandinavia on World Tourism Day”.
An image AI-illustration of a Huldra
Imagining how a Huldra would look like. Stock AI-generated image ID: 2400845203 by Shutterstock AI Generator. Click on the image to visit my post titled : “Scandinavian Folklore”.
A Tomte wearing a red hat in a snowy winter forest | Scandinavian Folklore
An illustration of a Tomte another Scandinavian mythical creature. Shutterstock ID: 2060057882 by PLIMPLUM.

The NBC Interview with me about Dallas Tornado

October 19 and October 20, 2024, I got phone calls from NBC Universal. NBC Universal is a large media company that is a merger between NBC news and Universal Studios. I ignored the phone calls, because why would NBC call me. I thought it must be spam or a scam. Then I listened to the message they left, and I realized it was not spam. The NBC journalists had been reading my Leonberger blog, specifically a post I had made about the tornado that hit Dallas and ravaged our neighborhood on October 20, 2019. They wanted some of my photos and they wanted to interview me. You can read more here and you can listen and see the interview here. It is at one minute and ten seconds.

A photo of my TV above the fireplace. I am on the TV screen.
Seeing myself on the TV was a bit surreal. Click on the image to see the interview. My interview starts at 1 minute and 11 seconds.
A neighbor’s house with the roof ripped off.
NBC used this photo. A neighbor’s house the morning of October 21st, 2019. Again, click on the image to see the interview.

Below are some additional photos in from these events in the form of a photo collage.

I wish everyone a peaceful and wonderful 2025

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

52 thoughts on “Big Events In 2024”

  2. I wish you nothing but good memories of Daisy. What a cutie! One of my favorite parts of your book was reading about the interatction of the dogs with each other. Life in the dog heirarchy and friendship world is always fascinating to me.

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  4. Sounds like you’ve had an eventual year, Thomas! I’m so sorry about Daisy ☹️ it’s always so sad to lose a beloved pet. 🙏 Congrats on your SuperFacts blog too, you do a great job with it! Visiting Sweden and Norway sounds super exciting! All your photos are amazing. 😊

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    1. Thank you so much Laura. She was old, we knew it had to end but it is still very difficult. Unfortunately, dogs don’t live very long. The Sweden/Norway trip was indeed a lot of fun. My son and his wife are very busy professionals but they took some time off to spend with me.

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    1. Yes you are right da-AL. We think about the dogs we had in the past and it hurts. We wish we still had them but unfortunately they don’t live long. It lot happened to us this year, but it seems like it does every year. Some you plan, and some you don’t expect.

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  6. You had a bumper year. Condolences for the sad part and congratulations for the good. At least Daisy had ‘good innings’. That’s an expression from cricket playing meaning the player did well.

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  12. I enjoyed looking back over your year, Thomas. Sad posts, interesting posts, and informative posts. I’ve become a big fan of your Superfactual Blog (and talk about it a lot when the subjects of facts, science, and truth come up). 🙂 I hope 2025 is an amazing year for you and your family. 🙂

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  15. Looks like you had an interesting year full of ups and downs. RIP Daisy, I’m sure she will be missed and remembered fondly.
    Wishing you an amazing 2025.

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  17. Java Bean: “Ayyy, there were lots of doings and happenings there this year for sure! But we know how you must still be missing Daisy!”
    Chaplin: “Yes, it’s been over six years now and we still miss our beloved brother Dennis, and I bet we would miss Tucker, Trixie, Trouble, and Pooh Bear, too, if we had ever met them.”
    Charlee: “Probably. I know Mama and Dada miss them.”
    Lulu: “We send lots of tail wags your way.”
    Oona: “And Oona and the other cats send lots of purrs.”

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  21. Just catching up with the reader Thomas after a few weeks off from the blogosphere. You had an eventful year to say the least with highs, lows and flashes of fame. Once again congrats on the reach of your book. It was cool to see the interview snippet, I was half expecting you to have an American twang when you spoke but nice that you have retained much of your original accent. My sister, for example, is English like me but mostly sounds Scottish after years living up north. My condolences again for Pug, decades on from losing our family dog Inde and it still fills me with emotion thinking about her. Wishing you a fantastic 2025.

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    1. Thank you so much Leighton for your kind words and welcome back. Thank you so much for the condelances for Daisy. We certainly miss her. About the accent, when you learn a foreign language as an adult, they say the cut off age is 12, it is very difficult to get rid of the accent. Just think of Arnold Schwarzenegger who’s been in the US longer than I have. When it is the same language but a different accent I think it is easier since the way you form sounds is more similar. I wish you an amazing 2025 as well.

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