More feedback on the Valley Air Pollution Control District and doing a good deed to others just to do it...

  

* ...PIE RUN: My recent rant against the Valley Air Pollution Control District for being heavy handed with the Thanksgiving Pie Run bonfire elicited a string of positive responses, with the exception of this one. "Sounds like the staff of the air district is just doing their job, in response to a report of illegal activity," said one reader who asked that I withhold her name. "It's the law that bonfires can't be held.... You owe them an apology. I for one enjoy clean air, and think fouling it with a bonfire is idiotic. Stop whining."

 * ... KARPE HONOR: Nice to hear that Lisa Karpe has been honored as the 2010 Volunteer of the Year for the Southern California chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. This is a big honor for such a large chapter that reaches from San Diego north to Fresno and east to Las Vegas. The award noted that she created a program called Caring Connection, which involves visiting MS patients in skilled nursing facilities. Her husband is Ray Karpe, chief operating officer of Terrio Therapy and Fitness, who also volunteers with the MS Society. Their eldest son, Robert, is a freshman at the University of South Carolina while brother Adam is a senior at Garces Memorial High School.

 * ... GOOD DEED: Here's something you don't expect every day: Destiny Jimenez, a Bakersfield College student, was at a Jack in the Box drive through near Oswell and Highway 58 recently when the cashier told her that her bill - $13 - was paid by the customer before her. Apparently it was "Pay if Forward Day" and folks were out there doing one good deed after another. "There's really nice people out there," Jimenez said. "I want to do it for someone so they can do it for someone else."

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISM: A good one from reader Jimmie D. Hill: You know you're a Bakersfield old timer if "you played at the miniature golf course that was a tad north of the little Green Frog Market at Bernard Street and Alta Vista Drive in the late 1940s and early 1950s."