Do you have someone to thank, or a peeve to get off your chest? Send it to BandB@comoxvalleyrecord.com

Although the post will be anonymous, include a contact name and phone number, because there鈥檚 a draw every week for a meal for two from Dairy Queen. This week鈥檚 winner: Samantha Stone.

***

MASSIVE BOUQUETS to Mother Nature for providing our Valley with a bumper crop of blackberries this year. Please don鈥檛 forget, when you are picking them, to pick an extra bucket, for the baby birds at MARS. MARS, as we all should know, is our local animal rescue society. They can freeze them for next year and will even come to your door to pick them up. Our wildlife needs your help!

A BIG BEEF to the woman in the little blue car who backed in to me at the government liquor store yesterday (Aug 14). You could have at least stopped and apologized. You did damage to my black Dodge Journey, and to fix it, it has to come out of my pocket. Karma will kick you one day.

HUGE BOUQUET to a young man, Arturro, who came to my aid when I had a terrible fall on the sidewalk. Arturro took me to the hospital, stayed with me the entire time, over 3 hours, through CT scan, X-rays, etc. Then he brought me home. Two days later he came to make sure I was okay and if I needed anything. This young Mexican/Canadian is the type of person we want to immigrate to Canada. What a great citizen for Canada.

MANY HAPPY DAYS ahead for the workers from Vancouver Island Health support. I broke my hip in March and had them come morning and night for over two months. I still have them come and bathe me. Both the men and women were very lovely and caring. It means you can stay in your home with people like this looking after you. I can鈥檛 name you all but thank you so much.

SPECIAL THANKS to Howie who helped two bumbling fools who dropped their car keys down the storm sewer at the Comox Quality Foods. Your eagerness to help and quick thinking to go home and get a magnet resulted in the return of the keys and is what makes our community so special.

TO BE FIRST at everything, start at the back and go in the opposite direction. Bye from Dave

I HAVE BEEN READING (with great interest) the complaints coming from our cyclist population. They continue to claim that they have the same rights to our roads as cars. I鈥檓 about to stir the pot here. I personally would be more sympathetic to their cause, if like all the cars on the road, they were required to be licensed and insured. I鈥檓 sure that there will be a lot of beefs to follow.

A SAD BOUQUET to the former mayor of Courtenay whose profane, callous and shaming CV Record Facebook post about those of us who have observed and experienced the pain of senseless transfer of a family member from St. Joseph鈥檚 when a decision for medically assisted dying was chosen adds to our pain. I can only hope he might find some compassion in his heart and realize until he is able to walk in another鈥檚 shoes he might try to garner the wisdom to stop shaming others as 鈥渨ell-meaning but uninformed do-gooders.鈥� Possibly the former mayor should cease the judgemental profanity and take time to actually become informed!

TO THE PARENTS of the longboard rider whose board was hit near the Fifth Street bridge. I have a few questions. Was your son on a marked crosswalk or was he on the road at 9:30 at night and did he have reflective clothing? Yes I agree the driver should have stopped, even to give your son a lecture if indeed he was on the road. Riding on the road is a very dangerous practice that I see all the time. Remember you are only hearing one side of the story. There鈥檚 always two sides of the story and somewhere in the middle the truth.

GREAT that local fire departments are supporting the wildfire fight in the Interior! With drier summers long predicted, provincial, federal and municipal governments need to prepare for wildfires.This is the new reality with climate change. Invest the BC $Billion and growing carbon tax into addressing wildfires. It could happen here.

ICY COLD BEEF to the Comox Valley Sports Centre and the Comox Valley Regional District for their handling of summer ice. The arena is most likely a taxpayer-funded ice facility that should be accessible to all, but it seems anyone under 55 is out of luck this summer. First you drive away some summer groups by changing their ice times so that most players can鈥檛 make it due to work so therefore they couldn鈥檛 run, then you don鈥檛 offer any drop-in hockey options to anyone under 55, and lastly you do not call back your customers who leave multiple messages to inquire about the reasons for this and looking for possible alternatives and solutions. Are we to assume then that, while we know that arena usage is less in the summer, it鈥檚 more beneficial to the community you serve to have the arena sitting empty not being used for blocks of time rather than to offer any options to have it used? Do you care so little for the facility and the community that you can鈥檛 be bothered to answer calls or try to come up with solutions? Or is it just easier for the staff to have nothing to do? Pure mismanagement. For a community like this that constantly claims to want to encourage activities and fitness to send players to Parksville or Nanaimo to play hockey while our arena sits empty is a total embarrassment. Hopefully someone with common sense and power reads this and makes some changes.

BOUQUET, BEEF, and apology. Bouquet to the excellent driving skills of the 鈥済entleman鈥� in the yellow Mazda coming out of the Superstore lot on Friday afternoon. You were in such a rush that you were only fifth in line instead of sixth waiting for the light to change. A beef to the same person for being so upset that he found it necessary to raise his arm through the sun roof and give me the middle finger salute vigorously several times. Grow up! And an apology from me to him and any others behind me for taking so long to exit the parking lot. Perhaps you saw more than I did (or less). I did not want to run over the person on the bike who appeared to be uncertain as to where he was going and I also didn鈥檛 want to tangle with the oncoming motorhome as he was trying to decide what lane he wanted to be in.

SO MUCH THANKS to all my friends and neighbours who have helped me since I broke my hip. I have had lots of visits and food brought to me. My garden has all been looked after and many little jobs outside have been brought up to par. I am taken shopping by a wonderful friend and she is always there to give me a ride wherever. I have the best friends anyone could have. I go for drives, too.

A BIG BEAUTIFUL BOUQUET to the Vipond family who are supporters of YANA for donating their deceased daughter鈥檚 tricycle in her memory. It reminds me of a fictictious classified ad reading 鈥渇or sale, baby shoes, never worn.鈥� I wish only the best for 鈥淭ashy Smashy鈥檚鈥� family.

A BEEF to the Aquatic Centre for getting rid of the supersaver. My husband and I could both go swimming for $5. Now Fridays are at regular rate and it will cost us over $10 to go swimming. The supersaver is very popular and a lot of people will find it difficult to attend with this dramatic price change, ourselves included.

HATS OFF to the parents, caregivers, support people and friends who joined their Special Olympic athletes in a mini fun bocce tournament Aug. 2. It was great to have so many of you join us. I know the athletes loved being able to show you their stuff on the courts. See you all next season.

TO MY AMAZING coaching support team 鈥� Deb, Marlena, Arlene, Phyllis, Tim, Duncan and Maureen. The athletes and I send bouquets of thanks your way for a great bocce season 鈥� couldn鈥檛 do it without you all! Special Olympics is very fortunate to have great volunteers like you.

ARTURO DIAZ looked after injured senior Paddy O鈥橞lenis when she was injured by a fall. He got her to St. Joseph鈥檚 Hospital Emergency and stayed with her for the three hour wait. We need more immigrants like him. President Trump, send more good ones to us.

A BEEF published on Aug. 1 complained about buses having 10 or fewer riders. Chances are pretty good that anyone claiming our local BC Transit buses 鈥渞un empty鈥� is someone who doesn鈥檛 ride the buses. Sure, not every run is packed full, but an effective transit system cannot be built on only the busiest travel times. And buses that might look to have few riders will have had on their long routes additional passengers getting on and off. Ridership is rising and better public transit makes for a more vibrant Valley, accessible to everyone. If the concern is that the bus trips are subsidized with tax money, then so are the roads that all vehicles travel on, as well as the parking lots they park on. Looking at the big picture, buses are a bargain. If you want to appreciate our bus system鈥檚 value, consider leaving the car at home and taking a ride or two 鈥� maybe to the new hospital!

SUMIMASEN! When I asked you where you lived, I thought you were a photo-journalist or an artist visiting from overseas. After finding out you were from Japan, I told you that I knew you weren鈥檛 from around here because most Canadians don鈥檛 find junk yards interesting enough to photograph. We drive past them so many times they cease to exist for us. My intention was not to insult you but to start a conversation. Although, we were there to see the old Buddhist temple, I had no idea that the old Japanese language school was also located in the Royston auto wreckers, and that was what you were taking pictures of. From your reaction to my words, I later wondered if you thought I was making a racist comment. Again, I am sorry for this. I hope you and your colleagues had a wonderful time visiting Japanese-Canadian historical sites on Vancouver Island, and that you come back again.

MANY BOUQUETS to Mayor Jangula. I want to thank him and Coun. Manno Theos for caring how our tax dollars are spent. When I watch the council meetings it is clear that these two are the only councillors who care. They voted against hiring more staff at City Hall, which will add one million dollars to our already heavy tax burden. They voted against spending more money on the transit system. I see big buses driving by me every day with only a few riders and sometimes none. Voting against adding more hours to this system made perfect sense to me. Too often I find the other councillors have their own agendas and could care less about who voted them in. Like Melanie McCollum said this indeed will be an election issue and I will speak to many people as possible and remind them who has our backs in city hall.

MAJOR BEEF to the grocery shoppers that rip open fresh corn cobs and then put them back on the pile when they don鈥檛 meet their expectations. This corn now becomes unappealing and likely not sellable. Do you also peel back the skin on onions to find the ideal one? What are you actually looking for? If the corn is firm and the tassels are brownish, it鈥檚 more than likely perfectly good. There might be a few missing kernels at the top but that鈥檚 no reason to reject it. This early corn is imported from the US or Mexico and your chances of finding the perfect corn is close to zero. Please stop destroying and wasting good food! I am a regular shopper not affiliated with any stores.

TO THE DOG OWNERS who left their little brown dog in their minivan while they shopped at a local home/outdoor store on Aug. 10 at 11:45 a.m. - shame on you! Not only for doing it in the first place on a day when temperatures were 27 degrees, (parked in the sun) but for responding, 鈥淚鈥檓 sure it鈥檚 fine,鈥� when confronted, and only seemed moved into action when I threatened to call the police. Your dog was in distress, panting and barking, which is what drew me to your van in the first place. I am absolutely stunned that people still think it is ok to do this, despite numerous news announcements, reminders and real tragedies. It does matter if the windows are not rolled down. I would like to see how fine it would be for you if I put your head in an oven 鈥榡ust for five minutes.鈥� To the rest of this beautiful community, including sales staff in stores, please don鈥檛 stand by/ walk by if you see this happen. Be an advocate!

MAD CHEF restaurant鈥�Where are you? Where have you gone? Gone are the superb food items with tantalizing taste combinations and eye-catching colours, that brought our visiting guests (and our whole family/friends) to Mad Chef, every time they came into town and every week for us residents here. Gone are the generous portions that left us terrifically full, with our taste buds alight with glee and begging for more perfection. Gone are the hilarious plaques of stories that garnered the walls and hallway to the bathrooms. One of our kids sobbed, yes, sobbed, at finding out you are gone. She had her first kiss in Mad Chef鈥檚 and over the tastiest food, promised her heart she would (way in the future), bring her own kids there one day too鈥�to enjoy the flavours, the ambience and the incredible up-beat fun, that was known the planet-over as鈥�Mad Chef鈥檚 restaurant in Courtenay. We had celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, and just-because celebrations in your electric atmosphere, we always loved going to Mad Chef鈥檚. You are missed, no one can come close to the joy, tastes, and beautifully-full stomachs you offered us. Now, we are鈥�MAD! And very sad.

A CARLOAD of Beijing smog to the man that passed me on a solid line on Lazo Rd. just as we neared Torrance Rd. Riding my bicycle, I had taken the lane and was travelling at 40 kph when the white Ford Escape passed me and forced an abrupt stop behind him at the stop sign. He did a California stop and proceeded. Both of us had just passed a bicycle/car share the road sign. Either he couldn鈥檛 read, comprehend or just didn鈥檛 want a bicycle on his road.

This is one of the dangerous activities drivers force on cyclists. I doubt there was anywhere that important he had to be that couldn鈥檛 have waited 20 seconds. Instead, he probably again endangers a cyclist鈥檚 well being. Give your head a shake, open yours eyes and throw a bit of slack. This is one of the routes I have been cycling for over 20 years and the drivers are getting worse. Dead is forever.