Comments from our readers:

THIS IS A RANT for local weathermen. Would you please just tell us how cold it is and let us figure out how cold we feel?

A RAVE TO the Shriners for the excellent treatment my daughter and granddaughter got on their trip from Atlanta to the Cincinnati Hospital. They are God-sent. Bless them all.

IN RESPONSE TO the rant about the school crossing on Windsor Spring Road: We are not your own personal red lights. We are there to cross the children and if the person gets backed up and you have a hard time getting out, that is when we direct traffic. But we do not sit in our vehicles. We are only there to cross the children and pull the traffic out if it is bad.

A RANT TO the person who called in about the school crossing guard. She is only following instructions from her supervisor. If you people would learn to drive and be courteous to each other, you would not need a school crossing guard.

A RAVE FOR the crossing guard at Travis and Windsor Spring roads. She has crossed my children safely for the past two years. She is a school crossing guard, not a traffic director. Use your driving skills!

A RANT TO the person who called in about school crossing guards. If people would slow down, there would be no need for a crossing guard at all.

JOSEY ALUMNI, how can we sit and continue to let our football coach fall deeper and deeper into despair?

THIS IS A RAVE for the woman who works the night shift in the lobby at the Eisenhower Army Medical Center. She went out of her way to help me when I was feeling really bad.

HERE WE GO AGAIN. Demolition Democrats and Republicans. Democrats should hear themselves on TV. They want to tear down the military. They are costly to our country. We need our military. Please stop the news media from telling all our secrets and stop trying our military men in court. Let the military handle the military, and let the news media and the rest handle other things.

A RANT TO congressman Paul Broun. He has a brand new office, but he is not returning any calls. After six weeks, I thought he would return my calls. I left two messages.

A RAVE FOR THE Christmas light-up spectacular. It was so great! My kids had so much fun and the face painting was great.

A RAVE TO all of the employees at Publix on Washington Road in North Augusta for sponsoring the wonderful Christmas party at A. Brian Merry Elementary School. Your kindness is awesome, and thanks to all of you for a very, very special party!

I'M APPALLED at the lawn-maintenance people who blow the leaves in the street to clog our water drains. If your maintenance people do this, please fire them.

A BIG RAVE to the Columbia County school transportation department. My daughter left her saxophone, and they really went the extra mile to find it for her, and they were so professional and courteous. The more I see of the Columbia County school system, the more impressed I am.

THIS IS A BIG rave for the vendors of the Lynx merchandise at the hockey game. They do an excellent job.

A RANT TO radio DJs who carry on long conversations between themselves. I listen to the radio to hear music, news, weather, time and traffic problems. This is not talk radio. When they start talking, I switch to music.

I HAVE BEEN out driving around Augusta since about 8 a.m. It's 11 now, so for three hours I have seen three different Richmond County Sheriff's Office cars turning without using their traffic signals, and one of them happened to be a traffic motorcycle. It just boggles my mind because I know that they would expect us to.

If you have an opinion you want to share, call The Augusta Chronicle's Rants & Raves line at (706) 823-3397, fax your opinion to (706) 722-7403 or send an e-mail to newsroom@augusta chronicle.com.