Friends make life more wonderful.

One of the best events at the La Mesa Octoberfest is the dachshund race sponsored by the San Diego Dachshund Club. There were two highly motivated teams of four wiener dogs dashing down the track, and the crowd went wild! So much fun!

Lots of cute and wonderful animals have visited my yard over the years. Today a cute kitten waited for me near the front door. I brought her some water. Hopefully she found her way back home. Then, there was another unexpected visitor––my neighbor's dog, Jasper came over and ate the bread I had put out for the squirrel, haha! What fun!

Little Saigon San Diego celebrated the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival with a wonderful lantern parade and other festivities at the park behind the City Heights library, Sept. 14, 2024. I added some moon footage from a walk in my neighborhood on the night of Sept. 18 when the moon was full. The music is called Dispel the Mist, composed and performed by a Falun Dafa practitioner.

The squirrels were eating all my guavas for years, starting when the guavas were small and green. I didn't mind too much, because the squirrels were hungry and they are so cute. But then, my neighbor got a new cat––Comet. He's regularly patrolling my yard, watching the squirrels. He even learned how to climb trees. This has made the squirrels very nervous and they are mostly staying away. So that's why I have so many guavas this year. I eat a few every day and give the rest to friends and neighbors. Autumn Blessings!

We met this cool cat and his owner on the bluff off Sunset Blvd in Ocean Beach. He stayed very calm when dogs got close to him and acted like he was also a dog. In fact the dogs felt a bit confused and didn't want to get too close to this "dog-cat."

Miss Nellie and the Skunk How a playful skunk transformed a grumpy old lady. Once upon a time a skunk visited my backyard and decided to make himself at home under the house. I tried many (non-harmful) ways to persuade him to leave. It was quite an adventure. Years later I decided to write a children's book about it. It was a lot of fun trying to come up with rhyming verses and make the sissor-cut illustrations.

The Hauoli Strummers San Diego Ukulele Club is meeting at the Pacific Beach Library on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month at 3:00 pm and at Vacation Island in Mission Bay on other Thursdays at 4:00 pm. Find out more about them at meetup.com/sdukulele/

Santa Monica, California, is famous for it's Entertainment Park on the old fishing pier. Alex, a great street musician played Louis Armstrong's classic "What a Wonderful World."

It's located in Balboa Park and great fun for the whole family. With banjo music from the 1920s, and the saxophone piece at the end is performed by James Brown of the ViceVersax.

The Dragon Wagon Roller Coaster was my favorite at the Vietnamese Tet Festival, along with the lion dancers, watching all the little kids having fun, and chatting with the nice people at the Shen Yun booth.

Oh dear, everybody is scared of the toy squirrel! I better remove it!

We took Oscar to the Coronado Island dog beach for him to have fun and meet other dogs. We didn’t know what to expect and how he would respond to so many dogs running around him because he had been in an animal shelter after having been a stray for probably a long time. At the animal shelter he seemed timid and depressed and wouldn't interact with other dogs. But it turned out, Oscar is quite social and made many new friends! He loves dogs his own size! He also stood his ground when some big dogs came too close or accidentally bumped into him.

The ducks at Balboa Park in San Diego often come over to rest or walk among us while we do the Falun Dafa meditation and exercises. They enjoy the peaceful energy. I was surprised when a duck started to nibble on my toes while I was meditating. It didn't hurt and made me smile. Join us at the park. Learning Falun Dafa is always free. To find a practice site near you and study the teachings of Falun Dafa go to: falundafa.org To learn the exercises online: LearnFalunGong.com

The Carousel is powered by the original General Electric motor, installed in 1910 when the Carousel was built, and the music is played from its original military band organ.

One day, Oscar was walking past an Italian restaurant. The hostess noticed him and went in the kitchen to get some Italian sausage for him. The chef also came out to say hi. Oscar loved it! Since then he insists on walking to the restaurant whenever they are in the area to get some Italian sausage. You can tell by how fast his tail is wagging how excited he is!

Max Dennert plays Asturias, November 2020.

The most common hummingbird in Southern California is called Anna. I discovered this one enjoying itself among the morning glories in my backyard. Hello, little Anna!