No electricity

Dag picked me up and we drove to Boda for a long weekend.
On the way I saw something which really made me upset. Half way we stopped by McDonalds for a hamburger and coffee. This is close to a shopping center at the swedish side of the border and nothing more. Outside McDonald's there was a dog laying with two sleeping bags and some other stoff. Immediately I worried about the dog. Today it was around zero Celcius, but it has been very cold until today and it will get colder from tomorrow, down to minus 23 next week. From the window, I saw a man coming to the dog and both of them seemed happy to see each other. When I got out, I asked the man if they slept outside and he said that he had stayed outside for three weeks, since he lost his job in Arvika, he was from France and didn´t get any benefits in Sweden. He was waiting for a social security number so he could get a new job. I felt so sorry for them, beeing there in the midle of nowhere. I asked him if I could give him a warm blanket for the dog and he said thank you. I felt for doing something more, but since I don´t live in Sweden myself, I don´t know what I could do. I have been thinking of those two all evening. There are many poor souls out there, both people and animals.
When we arrived at Boda, our neighbour, farmer PO, came to ask if everything was ok with our house, since it had been minus 35 degrees. The water had frozen so many places in the neighbourhood and he worked day and night giving 25 horses and 25 cows water, now when the water was frozen.
After an hour in the house the electricity went out in the area and it lasted for hours. Nice to have the new oven installated in october :)