Say goodbye to global warming and hello to global flooding.

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To the spoiled, snooty coffee-drinkers of Fayette County: I am not the dirt on the bottom of your shoe. You will receive premium service when you stop placing your order as if you are the most vital customer to our establishment, and start talking to us like we are more than the scum of the earth. So, next time you order your medium half-decaf with cream and sugar, remember that you are no more special than the customer behind you, and you certainly are no better than me or my coworkers.

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Thank you, Dover Square neighbors, for the new sign and plantings installed this spring. It takes the whole community to keep Peachtree City Beautiful.

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It’s potato planting time. With all the rain we’ve had lately, you may have to wait until your soil dries out, but once the soil is workable, dig a trench and space your seed potatoes about 10 inches apart. Cover the potatoes lightly, and they will be up in a few weeks. If you have old potatoes in the closet that have started to sprout, those can be planted also. If the seed potatoes are large, cut them into pieces the size of golf balls, make sure each piece of cut potato has a sprouting point called an eye (the potato won’t sprout without an eye). In fact, the professional potato growers call potatoes without eyes blind; blind potatoes won’t grow.

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Amen to the “Driving 101.” Could we also add that drivers making a right turn onto a single lane road do not have to stop for the driver on the opposite lane turning unless there is a yield sign. And please, use your turn signal before you get to your turn, not when you’re 10 feet from it. This will let folks behind you know why you are slowing down. Read the manual and quit buying your driver’s licenses at Walmart.

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This is to last week’s Free Speecher who blasted me for thinking I deserved free natural gas. I’m sure you must have a huge part in the top of your hair because my previous Free Speech comments went right over your head. Why don’t you read my vent again, because obviously you misread it the first time. I never said anything about deserving free natural gas. In case you missed it, this was all my first sentence said: In times like these, where everyone is having a hard time financially, people losing their jobs, homes, etc., it should be against the law for a utility company to turn off someone’s gas until every possible route has been taken to make some sort of payment. I was writing on behalf of my daughter who lost her job, has a sorry ex-husband that won’t pay child support, has a 2-year-old and a 13-year-old and had scraped up the money to pay the back gas bill. The only thing I said was they came to her house and cut her gas off without knocking on the door to see if she had the money before they cut off her gas, leaving her with no heat and no hot water. And not that it’s any of your business where she got the money, but she hocked her wedding rings. She hasn’t asked the government for anything, so don’t worry, it’ll be there when you need it. Maybe if it wasn’t for greedy people like you who evidently all you think about is money and not trying to help your fellow man in times of need, American companies wouldn’t be like they are today. Who do you work for, AIG? I never said American taxpayers should be responsible for my debt. Evidently you got that one from misreading again. I’ve worked for everything all my life and never had anyone give me anything. So has my daughter. But when you’re down on your luck because of losing your job and you have two children to support, I think you deserve some compassion. But thank God everyone doesn’t think like you. Your other comments about liberal government, anti-American socialist and class warfare, capitalist pig hand, reducing charitable contributions don’t even deserve a response because they don’t apply to anything that I was talking about. I’ll pray that you and your family don’t ever lose their jobs or fall on hard times. Maybe then and only then, you’ll understand. But until you walk in my daughter’s shoes, go misread somebody else’s Free Speech.

I fail to understand how the writer of last week’s comments about some Free Speech from the week before can go off on a tangent about the things in his/her comments when I understood the person to say all they wanted was to be given a chance to pay the past due amount before having their gas turned off. Nothing was mentioned about the American taxpayer paying for anything for that person. If Americans are always taking care of those in need, there wouldn’t be anyone living in tents all across America because of losing jobs, therefore causing them to lose everything that they’ve worked hard for. Maybe we shouldn’t be sending so much money overseas when there’s so many people that need help in America. But to make a comment like “not to worry; you won’t be able to bite the capitalist pig hand that feeds you for too long, since your leaders have decided to reduce charitable contributions through taxation and take on the role as nanny-state” was totally uncalled for. What does that comment have to do with anything? What type of person would write such a thing when all someone was asking for was another few hours to pay the past due bill?

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About Ga. Highway 74 South’s condition and speed limit: I have heard many complain since the widening project. A call to Peachtree City government offices about the mess along the recently-widened area brought a referral to the Department of Transportation. The DOT reports that after a highway project is substantially finished, they provide a “punch list” to the construction engineer, listing the details that need to be completed before payment is made in full. The DOT said they expect the remaining details and cleanup along Hwy. 74 to be completed in about 30 days (that would be about the end of April). Timing the lights was mentioned along with cleaning the sidewalks and grooming the medians. I couldn’t confirm that the “punch list” has actually been provided yet, so if you have items you want to be sure are included, the DOT is the place to contact, not the city. Hopefully, the DOT would make a more thorough list on their own than we individuals would come up with. The DOT also said that the original design for the widened Hwy. 74 called for a speed limit of 45 mph because that was compatible with the design elements such as sidewalks, sound barriers, and curbs. However, the DOT representative said that the speed limit could be re-evaluated if requested by the city AFTER the construction details and clean-up are completed and the operating conditions of the highway can be evaluated along with the design elements. So, if you want the 45 mph speed limit raised, contact your city politicians in May. As to why we have sidewalks instead of cart paths along the highway, I forgot to ask.

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To the driver of the car that destroyed my mailbox on Robinson Road, Saturday, March 28, between 1:30 a.m. and 7 a.m., if you would like to have your mirror back, you can pick it up at the PTC police department. I bought a new mail box and have already put it up; you owe me $34.40 for the mailbox, I kept the receipt in case you would like to see it and I didn’t even charge you for the labor. Thank you and have a nice day.

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Thinking of getting new garbage pickup service? Beware of CLM: Inferior service in every way, never able to reach anyone in their office, rates have gone up, only pickup what is in the can and not boxes broken down beside it, plus their truck leaks oil. We were paid up with them through March 31. On March 16 we canceled our service to become effective April 1 and had already scheduled Robertson to begin on that date. On March 25, CLM suddenly decided to take away our can, although March 27 was a normal garbage day. I called the office and finally reached some bimbo who, when I told him what had happened, sat there and finally said, “Well, I really don’t know what to do.” I then told him what to do. Bring our can back. Our service is paid for until April 1. He couldn’t do that and then suggested that I find something to put the garbage in and set it out by the street on Friday. I told him we don’t have extra garbage cans sitting around and then he said, “Just set the bags of garbage out by the street.” I informed him that Peachtree City would not be too pleased about that and I would not do it. He said he was sorry. I told him he could see his report card in Free Speech and then hung up. Meanwhile, Robertson Sanitation, whom we have contracted with beginning in three days, stopped by our house today on their regular run and asked if we had anything they could pick up. Now how nice was that?

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While I agree that we have a glut of overpaid administrators in our school district, our school interpreters are not in the same league. Yes, we have five interpreters in our district, but they earn a nominal salary and not the $150K per year that has been claimed by some. I’ve called the Human Resources Department at our school district and Dr. Reaneé Ellis was kind enough to furnish me with their actual annual salaries: Interpreter 1: $23,735.00; Interpreter 2: $37,932.00; Interpreter 3: $37,932.00; Interpreter 4: $25.00 per hour; Interpreter 5: $37,932.00. I’m also glad to learn that they are employed strictly for our hearing-impaired children and not to interpret a foreign language for families who refuse to assimilate and speak our nation’s language. These interpreters provide an equal opportunity in learning for disadvantaged Fayette County children and should be considered an indispensable part of our teaching staff. Note that you can add up all five of their salaries and it still won’t approach the salary of just one school district employee: John DeCotis.

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So my 67-pound Girl Scout goes out in the cold and rain of February to sell cookies. She delivers over 100 boxes on the Sunday-Monday of our snow weekend this month. This past Saturday, as in every year about this time, a football player knocks at the door. Yeah, its’ Glorified Begging time, oops, I mean donation time for the football team, dressed out in his letter jacket, even though it was 72 degrees and sunny. It is embarrassing, Starr’s Mill High School athletic director, to send your players out empty-handed each year begging for donations while Girl Scouts and other school groups worked significantly harder and certainly more productively than your athletes. Can’t you guys sell me a candy bar, wash my car, cut my grass to inspire me for a donation? Would that be too taxing for these athletes, or you just enjoy the stigma of begging? I am sure that a little of productive planning of the athletic department, and a little sweat equity of your athletes would pay off with a much larger investment in your department. Yours is the only group that goes door to door begging for a hand-out that I am aware of. I gladly support with my dollars groups that have a plan and a mission, like the middle school chorus and the middle school basketball team. I bought three poinsettias and three pounds of coffee from each of these two groups this past year. By the way, have you noticed we are in a recession?

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While Americans are keeping their attention on the economy and AIG (at the direction of our great leader), and our friends and allies around the world are warning us that we are becoming too socialist, the washing(ton) machine is cleaning up some nasty details: Our freedom. H.R. 1388: the G.I.V.E. Act has been passed in the House and is now in the Senate. From the Misc. section, #6104: “(6) Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed.” Do you understand what you just read people? MANDATORY! It doesn’t start there, no, indoctrination into the “National Civilian Community Corps”(as named in the bill) will begin by programs (such as extended day or after-school programs) in elementary school. When interviewed, Rahm Emmanuel revealed that, while attending college, kids would be required to attend training in barracks, wearing uniforms, (i.e., paramilitary style). Also included in the bill: SEC. 1304. Prohibited Activities, Section 125 (42 U.S.C. 12575): States that participants may not engage in attempting to influence legislation, organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts or strikes or engage in religious instruction, worshiping services, or proselytization. In other words: no free speech, no freedom of religion, no right to protest. I know this sounds crazy and you think, “That could never happen in America.” People, read. Read the bill for yourself. Google. Hear for yourself what Rahm Emmanuel said about it. For God’s sake, open your eyes to what is going on around you. Connect the dots: California outlawing homeschooling, D.C. closing all the charter schools that were immensely successful. Vehement opposition of school choice and vouchers. Our kids are already being indoctrinated in public schools. Pay attention to what they are being taught, see for yourself. Do not sit back and allow communism to further infect this great nation. If that sounds extreme and idiotic to you: study. Find out for yourself how communism sprung up in the past and then ask yourself with all you know: “Could this happen in America?” and then, “What am I going to do about it?”

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It seems the university of Notre Dame switched from being a Catholic college to an Episcopal school when no one was watching. One might reach that conclusion since the head of the university has invited President Obama to speak at this year’s graduation and to also bestow an honorary degree on him from the college. Real Catholics may find this disturbing since Mr. Obama personally authorized the use of federal tax dollars to advance abortions and the use of human fertilized eggs for experimentation by doctors.

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I am the proud owner of three well-loved and well-cared-for pets. You will never find them in your yard or unsupervised in mine. For the five years I have lived here, I have put up with your cats coming into my yard, killing my birds, digging in my garden, putting their paw-prints all over my car and driving my animals crazy. We are all animal lovers and we all have to live together, but if you can’t take responsibility for your pets, maybe you don’t need to own any. There is a leash law in Fayette County that is for both dogs and cats; please keep that in mind.