Bako Bits: Looking for a $2 million mansion? Plenty to choose from in Bakersfield, and more on stray dogs and cats and those young gun skeet shooters about town

 * … REAL ESTATE: How many homes do you think are for sale in Bakersfield for $2 million or

more? A simple search of the Trulia real estate website found five in that range, starting at $2.3 million and soaring to a $2.9 million mansion boasting seven bedrooms, eight baths and 16,000 square feet of
living space. Meanwhile, an old home I have admired downtown that sold for $220,000 in 2010 is back on the market listed at $775,000. What is this, 2006?

* … STRAYS: The throw-away culture that exists in our society unfortunately extends to pets, and Kern County seems ground zero for stray animals. Recently an emaciated, but very sweet, female gray cat showed up on my porch. She was hungry, for food, for water and most of all, for attention. I later learned that she had been spayed and walked with a limp because of an injury that no one bothered to attend to. A friend took her in, nourished her and heard the soft purr of a cat that only wanted to be loved. By the time she was taken to a veterinarian, it was too late. Someone out there unceremoniously dumped this cat in my neighborhood, an act so cruel that it defies logic. At least "Honey," as she was named over a 72-hour period, had love at the end.

 * … OVERHEARD: A friend coming back from the beach this week remarked: "What moron at Caltrans decided to reduce Highway 46 to one lane during Spring break week for minor road work?"

 * … SPOTTED: Former Gov. Pete Wilson was in town this week and was spotted in the lobby of the Padre Hotel chatting with KEDC director Richard Chapman and county counsel Teri Goldner.

 * … YOUNG GUNS: One of Bakersfield's best kept secrets is that each year it produces some of the best young skeet shooters in the nation. And that tradition continued this weekend at the Ken Barnes Open Skeet Tournament at the Kern County Gun Club. Miles Ramsey, the 13-year-old Stockdale Christian seventh grader and son of Mark and Betsy Ramsey, came away as the class champion in both the 28 gauge and 410 bore and as High Overall Champion in his class. And Jenna Bouni, 16-year-old daughter of Frank and Lori Bouni, shot a perfect 100 X 100 in the 12 gauge and also claimed the lady's championship with an overall score of 388 X 400. She is a freshman at Grand Canyon College in Phoenix. Both kids represent a long line of local teens who have had outstanding careers shooting skeet.

   * … MEMORIES: Jack Kelley posed this question:  "Good morning Richard. I was wondering if any of the old timers in Bakersfield remember the police motorcycles painted red and black. They were painted black and white after a lawsuit forced all vehicles issuing traffic tickets had to be painted black and white. I don’t think this applies anymore."
                                                                 

Downtown residents gather to oppose the widening of 24th Street and seniors at Garces Memorial High School pull off a year-end prank

* ... 24th STREET: There is a small but growing movement to oppose the widening of 24th Street downtown. A flyer being distributed to Westchester residents opposes the widening, saying it will destroy historic property and lead to a 40 percent decline in property values. The group is urging people to attend the upcoming hearings on the Thomas Roads Improvement Program (TRIP) project. Expect to hear more from these citizens. The plan is to widen 24th Street to six lanes, three in each direction, while cutting off some access to the south side of downtown by closing off some of the streets.

* ... GEESE: Darlyn Baker was heading west on Truxtun last week when traffic ground to a halt near Empire Drive. "Lo and behold, heading north across Truxtun was this family of geese.  It looked like the parents and six little ones. They made it safely across at their own pace... How refreshing to see the power of nature... to bring Truxtun traffic to a halt!" (photo by Darlyn Baker)

 * ... GUN CLUB: The Kern County Gun Club will hold its annual dinner and auction this Friday at 6:30 p.m. at the Bakersfield Elks Club. This is always an interesting and well attended event featuring both live and silent auctions and drawings. Tickets are $100 each. For more information call Ken Ferra at (661) 332-4680. And speaking of the shooting sports, I ran into Mark and Betsy Ramsey at Trader Joe's the other day and they told me son Miles has taken up skeet shooting at the Kern County Gun Club. Miles is being tutored by Clifford Bolt, an ace skeet shooter and a terrific coach. Miles is thinking of entering the Junior World tournament later this summer. (file photo of skeet shooter)

 * ... SPOTTED: Driving south on Highway 99 in a pickup truck, the driver is reading the Camera Ads auto trader publication while his passenger is engrossed in texting on his cell phone.

* ... SENIOR PRANK: A group of seniors over at Garces Memorial High School posted flyers photoshopping the faces of Monsignor Michael Braun and other school administrators on a historic picture of Adolf Hitler and some of his henchmen. They also apparently glued some of the classroom doors shut to delay the final exams for underclassmen. All this was done after they had graduated but underclassmen still had a few days of classes left. This little prank was clearly in bad taste as well as being destructive, but as one parent said: "Boys will be boys. Monsignor Braun should just budget for year-end pranks like this."

* ... SWAP MEET: Reader Joe Michael was at the swap meet on Union Avenue one recent morning when he noticed a young woman wearing a matching smock and pants like a health care worker with a stethoscope in her front pocket. Michael wondered how smart it was to carry a stethoscope in such a dusty and dirty environment. "A good friend of mine living in another city had surgery ... and contracted a staph infection, which entered his blood stream, went to his heart and lungs and he died the next day..... I thought of approaching her and asking where she worked and if she planned to sterilize the stethoscope before using it, but decided against it," he said.

* ... PREFIXES: More feedback on those old telephone prefixes, this one from reader Don Edwards: "My folks bought a house in the early 1950s out by the airport. I well remember the party line and prefix days. However the EX prefix wasn't Exchange. It was Export. Just a very trivial correction."