Mama Carol

My daughter is doing wonderful! She has her anxiety under control, most of the time at least. She's been working this summer, something she hasn't done since early in 2007. She has lost a good deal over 175 pounds since 2008. She exercises regularly, probably why she can keep the anxiety under control. She is on no medications for the anxiety, PTSD or anything else. This time in 2007 she was in in-patient counseling, weighed around 325 pounds and was on several anti-psychotic medications. She also now has Starr and Dru. They have made a world of difference in her life.

My daughter has panic and anxiety attacks and that makes her take her time doing things. Well above average on intelligence though and certainly not hard of hearing. It hurts her to hear people make comments about her being slower than some others but she is a very deliberate person in her actions. She has never liked to "mess up". Finally she got to the point where she decided she would be her and let others think what they wanted to. Your son will do fine as long as he realizes that the problem these people have is theirs and not his. What other people think of him is none of his b

One of my very favorite employees where I used to shop years ago was a young woman who was minimally mentally challenged. She went far above and beyond what the job called for. She always had a smile on her face, too. It broke my heart how some of the customers treated her. She was a delightful girl and really, truly tried to do a good job.

It wouldn't be seen up there, but I absolutely adore the commercial from the personal injury lawyer in Mobile who says that sometimes people will call him and think they can talk him into representing them if they pay him enough. He looks straight in the camera and says "If you drive drunk and you hurt someone, I'll be the one going after you". LOVE that commercial!!!

Seriously, I saw a guy in the store a few weeks ago take a handful of several different types of grapes and some cherries and then pop them in his mouth. He walked out of the produce department and didn't buy any of that stuff. Guess it was a good thing there was no loose packages of cooked meat lying around.

Sorry, I thought you said you ARE the people who pass a 1/2 mile line of cars to get to the front of the line at an exit ramp. I really need to get my eyes checked.

So Florida is an average of $250+ more a year on car insurance? Like I said, it is costing us as much to insure TWO cars here as we could insure THREE for up there. And we are higher on gas tax--53.8 cents a gallon vs 46.9. Our gas prices are comparable--ours is a bit lower right now but guess whose goes up first when there is a storm brewing out in the Gulf? Can't speak about repairs because we both drive newer vehicles, do regular maintenance on them.

They don't have a state income tax but they sure get their money from you in other ways. $800 to register two vehicles, almost $100 for our drivers licenses (that's both of us combined, not separately), property taxes, fishing licenses, more kinds of registrations than you can shake a stick at. Not to mention if you do ANYTHING to your house here you have to get a permit. We're wanting, and needing, new windows. Requires a permit and a special type of window. After everything is said and done, roughly $1000 a window. Need a new roof? Permit. Need a new water heater? Permit.

Insurance is higher, much higher, in Florida than in Georgia. It costs as much to insure two vehicles here as it did three in Georgia. Maybe more. Not only that, it cost us $400 to register each vehicle here. Driver's license is more. I noticed gas at Tom Thumb, our version of Quiktrip, is $3.36/9 this morning. I have no idea how that compares with gas up there. Last month when I was up there, gas was about the same, maybe a penny different.

Too bad they aren't as huge on product quality. We bought some nice, not cheap end tables and a coffee table from there. The wheels came off the coffee table the first time it got bumped out of place. The bolts keep falling out of the coffee table. But we love them and are willing to put up with the product defects. Best living room tables we have ever owned. Very unique in that the tops pull up on the coffee table and the wedge end table. I guess we were some of those customers who just knew in our minds what we wanted. Of course, we had looked for close to a year before we

We were in Lowes, which sells Wayne Dalton garage doors and openers. I asked the lead associate in garage doors about using a universal remote with a Wayne Dalton opener. He said Wayne Dalton doesn't make garage door openers, just garage doors, smirked at me, said you could reprogram a Genie or a universal opener to work with it and turned and walked away like I was an idiot for even asking the question. I wanted so bad to smack him across the face. I had a Wayne Dalton garage door opener in the car in the parking lot! And yes, I know the difference between doors and door openers. I

I'd be willing to bet that if they were at the one on Brownsville, they would have gone through the self scan. The ones with the turntables!

I have not set foot in the Hiram Walmart since they opened the one in Powder Springs. That store (Hiram) is skanky. I agree with you about feeling you need a shower and flea dip after being in there. I like Kmart pretty well and buy a lot of things there. Not health and beauty aids though as a general rule . They are higher than even Family Dollar on most of those items. I did buy a huge bottle of aloe gel, a hair brush and some hair "rubber bands" there the other day. The hair products were on clearance and the aloe was one of few I've been able to locate without Vitamin E added t

I don't recall Winn Dixie being out of Florida, but I wouldn't have really paid attention back then, Winn Dixie used to be real big around the Atlanta area. I'd been a Winn Dixie shopper since I was a teenager when they built a store at the corner of South Cobb Drive and Concord Road in Smyrna. When we started looking for a house down here, we made sure it was convenient to a Winn Dixie. And this one sure it! 1/2 mile MAYBE. I have a friend who lives in Columbus, GA. She says they still have Winn Dixie there, too.

My husband, and I will pull up tight behind each other in order to fill both trucks up. Not so much for the discount, but so that there is only one charge on the credit card. We normally buy gas at different times and with different credit cards. But that wasn't the point. The point was the guy asked us to go to another pump! We were in line behind him, not his wife. Is there an Albertson's? I think Kroger owns them. Nope. We have Winn Dixie, Piggly Wiggly, Food Outlet (a lot like Food Depot) and Pic N' Sav (also a lot like Food Depot) right here in town. We have a Publix

No wonder you and I got along so well. We get irritated at the same things! And how are you doing, Media Man? We pulled up to a gas pump at Kroger a while back. Some idiot told us we needed to go to another pump because his wife was waiting to pull up to that pump when he finished filling up. They both had SUVs and I'm pretty sure between the two of them they exceeded the limit of gallons for a discount. Less than 1/2 mile from me. And yes, as someone else said, I'm in Florida now. But no Kroger at all down here.

I forget where we were about two weeks ago but they opened another check out. People who had just walked up to the check out literally RAN over to that register. While we, who had been in line for a couple of minutes already, stood there waiting. But the look on their faces as we walked out, already gone through the check out, as they were waiting for a price check was PRICELESS! I think this was at Academy Sports. We had never been to one. We were very impressed! We plan another trip over there, too. Going two weekends before school starts is a bad idea though.

I was in Kroger one day and had a pretty fully loaded cart. I normally went through the self scan lanes with the turntable because well, I usually bought a lot of stuff. Only the small lane was open that day. The cashier working the self scan area pointed me toward that lane. I said I had too many things to go through there. She waved me on in. You should have seen the nasty looks I got from other customers! Hey, folks I wasn't there because I wanted to be. The cashier pointed me there! And what really irked me was the people with one or two items going through the lanes with the t

The woman is just really fortunate that my daughter has been able to deal with her problems as well as she has. Seven or eight years ago, the lady would have needed and ambulance and my daughter would have needed bail and a new job. The manager tried to be nice as she could be and my daughter tried to be as cooperative as possible, too. My daughter apologized to the manager and she said not to worry about her actions, that while leaving her assigned register wasn't a good thing, the circumstances were understandable and all was forgiven. She also said that if it should ever happen aga

Here's a story from the side of the cashier. A few weeks ago, my daughter was working at the sub-discount store where she's been working since the beginning of summer. It's NOT a "dollar store" where everything is $1. She had a customer come to the register to start checking out. An item rang up for more than the customer thought it would. Daughter told her the price was correct (that was also her department so she knew the prices of items in that department). Well, the customer went ballistic. "Oh, he** no, I won't pay more than $1 for that". My daughter "the price is $5.99". Cus

Check Big Lots. We got a mattress and box spring and frame for less than most places have mattresses. Brand sparking new Serta. We love it. It's now in our guest bedroom but we used it during our transition from house to house.

My favorite part: You asked: “Why can’t I ever f*cking get good customer service?” Well, ma’am, that might have something to do with you being a vulgar, miserable, malicious person. Maybe you get bad customer service because you’re a bad customer. Did you ever consider that possibility? I've always thought that the reason I rarely ever get poor customer service is because I'm a good customer. I'm patient, understanding and have only one time in my entire life ever screamed at someone who was trying to help me. Telemarketers are another story. Years ago when the McDonald's first opened

I understand.

Really? Rockysmom? IOW, if you throw enough money at it, it will fix the problem. Doesn't work with a house and doesn't work with a government program either.

Vickie Sue Robinson on The Midnight Special, 1976. Turn The Beat Around.