Total solar eclipse – Leonberger Life

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 21^st, 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 8^th, 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 4^th 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

When I made my blog post Dallas On April 8 2024 I promised to follow up with what happened. We had a small solar eclipse barbeque. It was just me and my wife, our daughter, grandpa and grandma and our dog Rollo. Our daughter dressed up Rollo in a vampire dog cap and put bows on the beer glasses, my wife prepared the food, and I grilled chicken and hot dogs. Then we enjoyed the show. It was a great show, and we were lucky with the weather.

A Westvleteren 12 in front and my open grill in the background. — Grilling and drinking a Westvleteren 12 a Belgian Ale Quadrupel from Brouwerij de Sint-Sixtusabdij van Westvleteren in Belgium, ABV 10.2%.

A table set for five with a large parasol. — Our patio table. The little brown packages contain AAS / ISO certified solar eclipse glasses.

My daughter holding a Westvleteren 12 glass with a bow. Grandpa and grandma sitting on chairs in the background. — Our daughter holding a Westvleteren 12 glass with a bow. Grandpa and grandma in the background.

A mini-Australian Shepherd sitting on the patio floor. — Rollo our mini-Australian Shepherd on the patio.

The Partial Eclipse

It was partially cloudy during the partial eclipse, but we were able to get a good look at the eclipse as it progressed. To see the partial eclipse, you have to use good solar eclipse glasses. It is primarily for safety reasons, but it is also pointless to look at the sun during a partial eclipse. You won’t see the eclipse because the powerful light from the sun overwhelms your view. I had a little filter that was placed in front of my phone camera as I took a few pictures. Admittedly they were pretty bad. I have an old Samsung Galaxy S8+ but even using newer phones it is difficult to get decent photos of something like this. This is why I need to invest in a real camera.

The photo shows a shiny crescent on black background. — Partial eclipse photo taken with my old Samsung Galaxy phone and a filter.

The Total Eclipse

1:40PM Dallas time the total solar eclipse happened and luckily it was not covered by clouds. At this point it suddenly got dark and it was safe to look straight at the sun without using the eclipse glasses. The total eclipse lasted four minutes. I have included a shutter stock photo below which closely represents what we actually saw. We saw a black circle and around the black circle was a wispy white fog like light. This was the sun’s corona and it shone with about the same power as the full moon. It kind of looked like a black hole. Our phone cameras distorted what we saw quite a bit, especially mine. The corona was blown up to 3 times its actually size and it looked messy, perhaps because it got dark. One thing this photo does not show is that the stars came out, which provided us with a little surprise.

The Venus Surprise

Below is a photo my daughter took with her phone. The sun looks tiny (it wasn’t) and the corona is overblown and does look like it actually did. However, you can see a star looking object down on the right above and on the left of the cloud and left of the airplane contrail. I used the Google Sky Map App to find out what star it was, but it wasn’t a star. It was the planet, Venus. It was located straight south high in the sky three quarters to zenith. I have certainly never seen Venus in that position in the sky before, and it was unusually luminous as well. I’ve seen Venus many times low in sky in the west soon after sundown (then called the evening star) and I’ve seen Venus many times low in sky in the east in the morning (then called the morning star), but never like this. The total solar eclipse provided an unexpected Venus show.