A Plane was flying through the jungle when suddenly the engine stalled. The pilot ejected and drifted gently down to land.

Unfortunately he landed in a large cooking pot which was gently simmering over a low fire.

All the local tribesmen turned to look at him until the chief, blinking in disbelief asked, "What's this flier doing in my soup?" 

---

A man walks into a doctor's office. He has a cucumber up his nose, a carrot in his left ear and a banana in his right ear.

"What's the matter with me?" he asks the doctor.

The doctor replies, "You're not eating properly." 

---

A man walks into the sheriff's office... "I want to become a deputy!"

"Good, I want to you to catch this man" says the sheriff handling the man a wanted poster.

The poster reads : 'Last seen wearing a brown paper hat, brown paper shirt, brown paper pants, and brown paper boots.'

"What's he wanted for?" asked the hopeful yound man.

"Rustling." 

---

What did the buddhist say to the hot dog vendor?

Make me one with everything.

---

What do you get when you cross fifty female pigs and fifty male deer?

A hundred sows and bucks. 

---

A faucet, lettuce and a tomato were in a race...what happened?

The faucet was running, the lettuce was ahead, and the tomato was trying to ketchup!

---

A guy goes to a psychiatrist. "Doc, I keep having these alternating recurring dreams. First I'm a teepee; then I'm a wigwam; then I'm a teepee; then I'm a wigwam. It's driving me crazy. What's wrong with me?"

The doctor replies: "It's very simple. You're two tents."

Fortunately (from what I've heard), I've never seen the above referenced movie.  Also, fortunately, I have recently been on vacation.  Unfortunately, however, all good vacations must come to an end.  Unless you were to, say...win a million dollars on a scratch-ticket, then your vacation could draw on out forever pending you made the correct investments and gave a good portion to your cousin.

Anyways, I was about to go into detail about my latest vacation.  We left the house Tuesday after work enroute for Shanda's parents' house so we could board our dogs there.  After a brief visit, we got back in the car and headed for mama's aunt & uncle's place at Emerald Isle.  We got there around 11pm and tiptoed in to keep from waking my neice, brother, and sister-in-law.  When we woke up the next morning, we were at the beach!  We all got in our bathing suits and headed for the sand.  Well, me and Shanda stayed at the house a few moments longer while I inflated the raft by mouth because I forgot to pack the pump.  Anyways, we got to the water and we were fighting a very strong current.  We spent most of our time headed west and made very little headway.  Somewhere along the way, I stepped on something in the ocean.  The best I could figure, it was the pointy end of a conch shell.  Ouch.  Well, by the time we get back to the blanket to lay down for awhile, I found out that I'd actually gotten a pretty good cut in my heel.  See, if I had a long gravel driveway to walk down barefooted, these kinds of things wouldn't happen.  I wasn't bleeding, which was a good thing, because the last thing I needed was a wounded foot and a shark bite. 

Anyways, I hobbled back to the house and took a shower and looked to see just how bad my foot was.  It was fairly painful to stand on, but the water didn't hurt it, so it was more of a bad bruise than a severe puncture wound.  Somebody (namely me) forgot to bring his toiletry bag, so we had to go into town to get toiletries.  Actually, we had to go into town (Morehead City) to go to Wal-Mart.  That and we were kinda hungry.  We were trying to decide where to eat and we went by several places and said "that looks good."  Then again, we can get Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Applebee's at home.  As we were driving through Morehead City we came upon Raps.  We figured we'd give it a try.  It's a nice bar and grill with a wide variety of foods.  We got an appetizer sampler plate (which was okay...nothing to write home about), I got a hamburger and Shanda got a Philly Cheesesteak.  Man, oh, man....that was probably one of the best hamburgers that I had ever eaten.  Shanda's sandwich was awesome as well.

Mama and daddy got there later that day and eventually we all decided we'd head to Rucker John's for supper.  They've got some awesome fried mushrooms if you ever go. We got there and put our names on the list and we TXT'd the rest of the group how long the wait was.  We shopped around the shopping center for a little while and then went in and ate.  Food was great as usual.  Daddy either had his mouth full or wasn't paying attention when Mama said it would all be on one check.  Feeling a little obligated, I pulled out a $20 for tip money.  Adam put his $10 in and then it got confusing.  I'm not sure why, but we sat there for about 5 minutes trying to figure out who should have what.  I think it ended up with my $20 as tip, and Adam's $10 in my pocket.

That was about as much excitement as we could handle for one day.  Thursday morning, Adam and his crew got up at the crack of dawn to leave to go to Fayetteville via Roxboro for Dorothy's grandfather's funeral.  When the rest of us got up, we went to the thrift store in Swansboro.  Shanda bought about $20 worth of books for her sister & brother-in-law, and we got free bagels.  We left there and went to Andy's for lunch.  (It's a pretty big chain in NC, so no review here.)  We stopped by the visitor's center where mama bought 4 tickets for the Beaufort homes & gardens tour, then Food Lion for our BLT supper supplies.  When we got back to the house, Shanda and I got on the bikes and rode to Ben & Jerry's.  Then we rode out and about on the nice bike path they have there.  We later went back and measured that we had taken about a 4½ mile trek.

Friday, I hobbled about through the homes tour.  About halfway through the day, my left heel was hurting worse than the one I was avoiding, so I was hobbling on both feet.  We toured all of the gardens on the list, a few houses, a couple of artists studios, three churches and the historic cemetery.  We also ate at Clawson's (which was good as always), and stopped by the Christmas Shop in Beaufort so Shanda could see the cat (and the Christmas decorations).  After all the Beaufort we could stand for one day, we went back to the Isle and spent quite some time deciding on where to go eat supper.  We finally decided on Flipperz since it was fairly close.  We got there and they told us it would be an hour wait.  We put our name on the list and went next door to the video rental store.  We looked through the movies a little while and Shanda found some more used books to buy for her sister.  We went back to the bar/store/waiting area of Flipperz and wandered around.  At this point, it had been around 40 minutes or so since the original hour estimate, and we'd been standing in their own facility for around 10 minutes.  Shanda asked the lady guarding the gift shop area to check, and they apparently had called for us while we were next door.  Fortunately, they were very nice and seated us right away.  I had the Paula Deen special.  I had potato soup and baked potato with my chicken breast, and it was gooid.  Shanda had a chilli cheeseburger, and it was good too.

Saturday, we got up fairly early and headed for Bethune via Chadbourn.  What's in Bethune, you ask?  My cousin, I say.  We brought some steaks with us and we grilled those with some fresh squash.  I don't know whether it was Jonathan or Nicole in charge of the potatoes in the oven, but either way, they turned out vury tasty.  We played Trivial Persuit and had us a big ol-time.

Sunday, we headed back to Chadbourn from Bethune.  I think we got most of the chicken flies out of the car before we crossed the state line.  Anyways, once there, we visited with Shanda's Uncle who had come to visit.

Monday, we headed to Myrtle Beach with Shanda's sister and brother-in-law for a shopping day.  I got me a new pair of shoes, and we went to Miyabi's.  Now, if you do like we do and get to the Miyabi's at Myrtle Beach and find the wait is about an hour and 45 minutes, go on ahead and call the Miyabi's at Murrell's Inlet.  It took us about 30 minutes to get there for our reservation that was just being seated not too long after we got there.  Somehow, I ended up with an extra serving of rice, or so it seemed...but that's alright, because the food there is always good.  Afterwards, I was awarded the driver's seat.  It's a good riding and a good driving little bus.  We made it to Barefoot Landing just in time for the Monday night fireworks show.  I don't think I've ever heard fireworks quite that loud before.  After a short stop at the Circle-K for some refreshments, we made our way back to Chadbourn.

Tuesday, Shanda went to class.  After she got back, we worked in the yard a little bit.  We planted a few things, I hauled off some brush that needed hauling off.  I also fixed the shower curtain rod in the Shanda's upstairs bathroom.  See, the upstairs is a converted attic, so the ceiling slopes.  It's about seven feet tall in the middle and about four feet tall at the wall.  Well, you can't just put a shower curtain up like that.  Shanda's daddy had come up with the idea of using caps for PVC pipe to hold the curtain rod in place.  That worked like a charm.  Then, we used a spring clip to clip the extra shower-curtain in place so that no water escaped from the back of the shower.  Five years later, we can finally use the shower.  We tested it out and then went to town to get pizzas for supper.

Wednesday, we took the dogs (Shadow and Delta) to the vet for their annual checkup.  We got them some imitation tennis balls and headed to the lake.  I call them imitation tennis balls because they only looked like tennis balls.  They hardly bounced, and they were soon destroyed after giving them to the doggies.  Even still, we had a fun time throwing the ball, watching Shadow go after it, only for it to sink to the bottom of the lake where we spent several minutes wandering about looking for the ball.  After an hour or so of fun there, we loaded up and headed off to Wilmington to get dog food.  (Special dogs have to have special food!)

Thursday, we worked in the yard some more.  Shanda planted things while I cleaned up some overgrown brush and mowed the yard.  Later on that evening, we went to the fireworks show at South Columbus High School.  There was also some "entertainment" there.  It was nice how the guy with the sound equipment finally figured out how to make it sound decent about 30 minutes before the end of the entertainment portion.  Anyways, it was a nice small-town fireworks show.

Friday, we went to the grocery store to get our 4th of July foodstuffs.  We also worked in the yard.  This seems to be a going trend.

Saturday, we went to a neighborhood pig pickin.  We had a nap when we came back from that, then we had a light supper and watched Sleepless in Seattle.

Sunday, we had a little church, had a little lunch, and then I came back home.  Now, one thing you're going to want to avoid on the Sunday following the 4th of July is the Interstate.  Consider yourself enlightened by someone who became enlightened about an exit too late.  I did get to see the towns of Godwin and Erwin once I got off the Interstate.  That's about it, though.  At one point I was thinking to myself that all I saw on I-95 was cars, and all I saw on NC-82 was pavement.  I made it to Lillington before it started raining steady.  Just past Fuquay-Varina and Holly Springs, however, the bottom fell out.  It was a slow drive between there and Durham.  It had finally slacked off some by the time we got to Durham, though.

When I got home, I saw where my neighbor's tree had fallen on my fence.  Yay.  Fortunately, it doesn't look too bad.  Just a couple of busted 2x4s and a few broken pickets.   I also got the sad news that my aunt & uncle's house had burned.  We still don't know many of the details, but thankfully no one was hurt.  Sometimes we don't realize how blessed we are until moments like these... 

My aunt and uncle's house burned last Friday.  Tim, Ellen, Barrett, and Fat Boy (the dog) are all ok, but most of their house and belongings have been destroyed or damaged.

Their house was the homeplace of my great-grandaddy, Cyrus White, so we all have lots of memories there.  Your prayers will be appreciated.

Thanks, 

-S 

Picture this:  You're on a safari somewhere in Africa.  The path that your driver is on comes to an intersection with another path.  There happens to be a stoplight overhead at this particular intersection.  Would you know how to handle this situation?  No?  I didn't think so.  You must've been in one of those cars I saw the other night.

Seriously though (and I've jumped back to the good ol' U. S. of A. here...), I do recall in depth what to do for traffic signals and their many different functions and malfunctions.  Red means stop.  Green means go.  If you're sitting at an intersection, make sure you watch the lights for the other drivers so you will be able to start blowing your horn at the precise moment the light turns green for the person in front of you.  (Actually, please don't do this unless I'm in front of you, and you want to see what it's like to never get out of first gear.)  What does yellow mean?  Floor it?  No.  If you have red light cameras, it's not a signal for your kids in the back of your mommyvan to turn and smile at the red light camera.  Yellow means stop (behind the white line) if you can do so safely.

Want to make it even more complicated?  That is for solid color lights.  If you put arrows and flashes, they mean something totally different!  Okay, well, kinda different.  For instance, if you come up to a flashing red light, you should stop and wait for a flashing green light.  Actually, just stop.  Look both ways, and proceed when no one else is going to be getting in your way.  Pretend it's a stop sign.

If you see a flashing yellow light, proceed carefully through the intersection, but do use caution, as no one has read this article besides you, and therefore, they will be highly confused when they come upon this situation.

If the arrow is solid red, don't turn in the direction in which the arrow is pointing.  If the arrow is solid yellow, stop (and don't turn in the direction in which the arrow is pointing) if it is safe to do so.  If the arrow is solid green, drive in the direction in which the arrow is pointing.

Now, flashing arrows are a different cat altogether.  A flashing red arrow is basically like a flashing red light...it's just a stop sign for people turning in the direction in which the arrow is pointing.  (Is there a shorter phrase than that?)  A flashing yellow arrow means that you can turn, but you're on your own as far as making sure you can do so safely.  Expect oncoming traffic.  If there is none, then you can do so safely.  (And by "do so" I mean turn in the direction in which the arrow is pointing.)

Alright, now, let's go back to Africa (and I have black friends, so I think it's OK for me to say that...).  Remember the traffic light in the middle of the jungle?  (Wait a minute...are there jungles in Africa?  And do you drive through them on safaris?  Eh, if not, humor me for a minute.)  There's a traffic light in the middle of the jungle.  Yes that's odd.  That's extremely odd considering that there isn't any electricity in the middle of the jungle.  Having ridden with a few cabbies in the Carribean, I could tell you what the safari driver would probably do:  slow down, blow his horn, and shout foreign phrases out of the window while proceeding safely through the intersection.

Well, let's come back from Africa.  (Note that the frequent flier miles from this blog may be redeemed at any time.)  If you come to an intersection which has traffic signals but no power, you are SOL because you are an American and you only know one language:  American.  This severely hinders your ability to shout foregin phrases out of the window while proceeding safely through the intersection.  Besides, if there is no power to the intersection, it's probably because there is a storm and it's raining, and you don't want to be rolling the windows down to attempt to shout foreign phrases out of the window anyway.  So what in the world do you do?

I'll tell ya.  You stop.  Pretend there is a little stop sign with a little "all-way" designation below it.  First come, first served.  Rain or shine, do it.

Oh yeah...and if there is a law enforcement official in the middle of the intersection...do what he/she tells you to do.  You won't get in trouble for running a red light if the officer tells you to do it.  Especially if you're driving a bus and Keanu Reeves is the one telling you to run the red light.  Not only is it the right thing to do, your life may depend on it.

I love old sayings & colloquialisms.  Here's some I found the other day when I was trying to tell people how busy I was...

THEY SAID: Active as a salmon in cold water.
WE SAY: Busy as heck.

THEY SAID: Busier than a one-armed paperhanger with a case of the hives.
WE SAY: Extremely busy.

THEY SAID: Busier than a one-eyed cat watching nine rat holes.
WE SAY: Extremely busy.

THEY SAID: Busier than a one-eyed cat watchin two mouse holes.
WE SAY: I have too much to do right now.

THEY SAID: Busier than a one-legged cat trying to bury a turd on a frozen pond.
WE SAY: He's busier than heck!

THEY SAID: Busier than a one-legged man in a butt kickin' contest.
WE SAY: Really busy.

THEY SAID: Busier than a three-legged cat trying to cover crap on a marble floor while having to go five miles for dirt.
WE SAY: He is extremely busy today.

THEY SAID: Busy as a paper hanger with the crabs.
WE SAY: Very busy.

THEY SAID: Cuttin' the hay tomorrow!
WE SAY: Going to work tomorrow.

THEY SAID: Giving Mother an ax for Christmas.
WE SAY: Giving a gift that makes the recipient do more (or harder) work.

THEY SAID: Goin' twelve ways to Sunday.
WE SAY: Really busy

THEY SAID: He ain't took a lick at a snake!
WE SAY: He hasn't done a bit of work.

THEY SAID: I did not do enough to break Sunday.
WE SAY: I did not do anything today.

THEY SAID: I don't care to work on Saturday (Southwest Va.)
WE SAY: I'd be glad to work on Saturday.

THEY SAID: I feel like I've been through the Mill.
WE SAY: I had a rough day.

THEY SAID: I haven't hit a lick today.
WE SAY: I haven't done any work today.

THEY SAID: I must have done that fourty-'leven times!
WE SAY: I have done that (too) many times.

THEY SAID: If it moves, nail it... if it doesn't, paint it.
WE SAY: Quit overthinking it and just get back to work.

THEY SAID: I'll get to it directly.
WE SAY: I'll do it soon.

THEY SAID: Just piddling around.
WE SAY: Not doing much.

THEY SAID: Lazy man's load
WE SAY: Tried to carry too much at once

THEY SAID: Slicker than snot on a glass eye.
WE SAY: It was really easy to do.

THEY SAID: Something was done..."like Grant took Richmond"
WE SAY: Something was done very quickly

THEY SAID: That dog won't hunt (Texas).
WE SAY: That's not going to work.

THEY SAID: That's the last button on ole Abraham's jacket.
WE SAY: We're finished working for the day.

THEY SAID: That's too much sugar for a nickle.
WE SAY: That is too hard or to much trouble to do.

THEY SAID: You must have a terrific cobbler.
WE SAY: What's up with the boots on your feet?

THEY SAID: Wish in one hand, crap in the other; see which gets filled up quicker.
WE SAY: Wishing gets you nowhere; hard work does.

Quite honestly, I've had lots to say, and very little outlet for it.  I mean, the Internet is a great place to spew random garbage.  I'm sure that somewhere out there, there is a giraffe on the internet telling everyone what he really thinks.  (And Stephen now has himself a new wallpaper.)

Like I was saying, there's lots that I would love to say, but I can't say it here, because I don't want the people it's about to read it.  I guess it all goes back to the whole "If you can't say something nice, (gasp) don't say nothin' at all" thing.

Things have been busy around here lately.  Not only that, but it's been toooooooo hot to do anything, which compounds the whole busyness thing.  My truck doesn't have a functional A/C, thus compounding the whole "toooooooo hot" thing.  Which, I guess it's sort of OK, because, while my truck gets 25 miles to the gallon, $4.00 for 25 miles ain't hittin on much.  I'm even considering riding the bus.  C'mon, $100 in gas money for a month (if I'm lucky) versus $30 to ride the bus?!?  Yeah, I'd have to walk part of my route, and yeah, I would be restricted to go where the bus goes, but dang...that's $70 bucks!  It's a good thing we're about to get our annual pat on the back at work.

Yeah...at work.  I've got lots to talk about regarding "at work," but instead, I'll not say nothin' at all.

Home's been pretty interesting here lately.  I've got 2/3 of the dogs while my wife is taking classes at her "summer home" as I like to call it.  I've been re-acquainting myself with household chores.  I mean the real kind, like washing socks and t-shirts instead of going to Rose's and buying new ones.

In the past month, I've had my grandfather, my neice, and my mother-in-law all in the hospital.  My grandfather is recuperating well.  My neice has bounced back to normal...you know how kids are.  My mother-in-law is in the hospital right now.  That situation makes the house much more interesting.  Since Shanda's been gone, I've had to prepare the house for not only her return, but for her returning with her family.  I managed to prepare a pretty good supper for 4 a couple weeks back, but it looks like that was a one-time thing.  While I haven't been the best host in the world, I have gotten some towels in the laundry. 

Yes, the White Inn and Grill is in full effect.  I'm thinking of providing a turn-down service.  For instance, one of my boarders will ask me for something they really want, and I'll say "NO!"  (This is one of the reasons why I never dated very much.)

Hey...scroll back up.  There's a giraffe's butt.  LOL 

Oh yeah, I thought of some work things I can talk about.  We've been having lots of people bring in (or at least attempt to bring) their home computers to our office for either surplus or data retrieval.  I've never heard the phrase "Hawaiian Death Chimes" until we got to researching the Macintosh Quadra one of our docs brought in.  Perhaps he needed his tax files from 1992.  Seriously, though, the hard drive has a date of 1988 on it.  The hard drive is one year away from being able to legally buy alcohol.  On another fun note, I've dubbed myself Techno-King of the big paperless office project we're working on before our big move.  (This picture has very little to do with what I'm talking about here.) 

Yes, I'm a technicological genius.  There is technology, and there is logistics, and I get to help mesh the two together.  Sometimes, I even get to go to meetings to take up my otherwise boring day.

Some other fun stuff...let's see.  Oh, I'm moving bank accounts.  This is fun.  This has the potential to be the first checking account that I've used which actually involves getting interest!  Fortunately, they use the "average daily balance" method, which means that they add up all the days between the day I get paid and the day I pay all my bills instead of just taking what I make, halving it, and saying that's the average.  (You math types shouldn't have any problem figuring that one out...)

I've tried hooking my computer's DVI connection to my TV's HDMI connection...didn't work out too well. The computer sees the TV, but either the computer doesn't want to output to the TV, or the TV doesn't want to accept the output from the computer.  I'm afraid to buy a new video card which supports HDMI (audio and all) in the event that it doesn't work with my setup.

Since I mentioned the TV, my home theater should be coming back home any day now...10-14 business days starts Thursday!  The Samsung story will be posted soon enough...don't you worry.  :-P

Juntoberfest is coming up this weekend!  Ya see...Ken's birthday is the 13th, Ken's girlfriend Emily's birthday is on the 14th, and my birthday is the 15th.  They're all together, or as they say en español, "junto".  They're all during June, or as they say in english, "June".  Sean Connery shouted "Febtober" on SNL's Celebrity Jeopardy.  There's a big celebration in Germany called "Oktoberfest".  Soo...if you put all that cooolness together, what do you get?!?  Probably a big headache.  But WE have Juntoberfest!  This probably will involve T-shirts and iron-on transfers at some point.  Hopefully, we can get together to partake in all of the Juntoberfest festivities before they're all...ober.

Does this qualify as absolute randomness?  I think it does. 

It seems as if everyone I know either has had a baby, is planning on having a baby, or has been a baby at some point in their lives.  That's why I thought it would be handy if I posted this care guide I found on the intertubes somewhere.

(Click to enjoy - opens in a new tab/window) 

The Monday Afternoon Club, an organization of wealthy city women, met and decided that this month's outing was to be at a dairy farm. Most of them had lived in the city all their lives, and had never seen such a thing. The day came, and the ladies filed into the rented bus which whisked them off to their destination.

On the way, they watched out the windows as the city squalor turned into lovely, unpolluted countryside. After they arrived, they were greeted by the farmer who invited them to look him up should they have any questions.

Myrtle, after looking about, and being amazed by what she saw, stepped into a building and viewed something she thought was quite remarkable. She saw the farmer walk by and hailed him - he sauntered in.

"Sir," she inquired, "Why doesn't this cow have any horns?"

The farmer cocked his head for a moment, then began in a patient tone, "Well, ma'am, cattle can do a powerful lot of damage with horns. Sometimes we keep' em trimmed down with a hacksaw. Other times we can fix up the young 'uns by puttin' a couple drops of acid where their horns would grow in, and that stops 'em cold.

"Still, there are some breeds of cattle that never grow horns. But the reason this cow don't have no horns, ma'am, is 'cause it's a horse."

So for the last seven or so months (whenever it was I got my BlackBerry), I've been getting text messages, phone calls, and drunken voice mails for some unknown guy.  Any time the name was said, it was slurred, run through, or just plain unintelligible.  This morning, I got the following txt message:

IM ENGAGED!:)

I definitely didn't recognize the number, but I thought, what the heck...I'll respond.

What a way to start the day!  Congrats!  Who is this?  -Stephen

I showed my co-worker who wanted to get in on the fun as well.  Shortly after their back and forth, I got this:

Its lisa A.  isnt this brett g{...}? 

I didn't know I had a TXT until after lunch, but when I saw it, I replied:

Nope..not Brett.  I have been getting lots of calls/txts for him since I got this number back in Oct., though.

So I decided to look up Mr. Brett G.   Apparently, he has my telephone number in his contact info on his website.  According to his blog, he's been in South America since August or so.  It doesn't make me feel so bad when I go forever without talking to some of my friends now.

Anyways, Lisa, if you ever read this, good luck with the wedding!  And Brett, update your friends on your new number, will ya?

Roughly 3 months ago, we switched over to the "I didn't really want to watch TV when it's raining outside anyway" service and cancelled all of our Cable TV service from Time Warner.  I believe it goes that I had recently made some changes in my service and I had an outstanding bill of about 30 bucks.  The guy I talked to said that it would be refunded if they took it out, but he didn't think they would take it out.  So, of course, they took it out.

Ya don't take money from me.  Especially if I didn't do something stupid to provoke it.  That's good way, that's a real good way, that's a good way to get on my bad side.  So I called, and as nicely as I could with the people that had charged me money I didn't owe them, demanded they return my money since I didn't have any services with them any longer.  Or so I thought...

Before I got home, my cable internet was turned off.  So I phoned up the friendly folks who not only took my money and wouldn't give it back, but now cut off my cable internet which I was actually being paid for via a different account.  That's where they looked into it and told me that I have an account, just not one involving the payment for the service.  So they turned that on and everything was straightened out.

It was straightened out, that is, until the next month when I received a bill for ninety-some dollars.  So again, I called and explained to them that I know that I need to have my account open, but when would I get my money back.  The lady I talked to said in the next month or so I should see some back.

So I waited yet another month and fortunately, I didn't get another charge.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any money coming back my way.  I called again to check.  The lady in Wilmington (apparently that is the closest after-hours call center, but I don't know that for sure...) told me she would have to check with her manager.  The manager was supposed to have someone from the Raleigh-Durham office call me back the following day and let me know when I should expect my money.  Of course, the next day passed with no calls from TWC either at home or at work.  (Both numbers are listed on my account.)

So after a week or so passes, I get a chance at work to call and check on my money.  I didn't care to go into any further detail, I just explained to Tammy (I finally remembered to write down a person's name...) the situation and how although I had my account still open, I would like to receive my moneys back in my checking account.  She put me on hold for a few minutes while she checked with her manager.  When she returned, she told me that they would refund my account in 3 or 4 business days.  I told her that if they did, I would give her a gold star.

Day 3 was May 12th.  I checked my checking account and no refund.

Day 4 was May 13th.  I checked my checking account and no refund.

I was disheartened and was worried that perhaps I wasn't going to be able to award Tammy with her gold star.  I would give them a couple extra days and call back.

Imagine my surprise when, today, I got my money!  I didn't have to call anyone else!  I finally had my money where I could spend it!  Persistence pays off in the end!

(Although, I do often wonder how many people would either not know, or just let it go to not have to deal with the hassle...)