Who says people who live in Manhattan don’t understand the issues rural America deals with?

Last night I was walking our two dogs and the smaller one (who’s an excellent hunter) charged what I thought was a squirrel. The tree I thought the squirrel was on was inches away from a huge wrought iron fence in the park adjacent to our building (the ping pong area in Fort Tryon Park - right near the subway entrance).

The problem was it wasn’t a squirrel. As soon as I saw a black furry thing and a white stripe I started pulling the dogs up the street. At first I thought we were lucky ’cause I didn’t smell anything, but then as the wind shifted as I got near our building I realized we’d been sprayed.

Buddy, the dog who started it all, got off pretty easy. The tree had gotten in the skunk’s way and it couldn’t spray him very well even though he was just inches away. But our other dog Holly was right in the skunk’s target area. Her head and chest got a pretty good dose of it and unfortunately her fur is thicker than Buddy’s and harder to get the spray out of.

We kept them in the hallway until we could deal with giving them a bath. The closest thing to tomato juice we had were tomatoes, so I used one of those on Buddy until Dan came up with the baking soda, peroxide and dish detergent mixture that was better (we also washed them with vinegar).

We controlled the smell pretty well. After two baths Holly still has a faint skunk odor around her head, but it’s not too bad. I’m just really happy it didn’t happen earlier in the day when we had to rush out to meet a new client.

So those of you who don’t think Manhattanites interact with nature, think again… Our parks have all sorts of unexpected animals in them…

Dan and I have been looking at office space recently (which I mentioned in the post on how square feet are measured in Manhattan). We’ve looked in East Harlem, Midtown West and did drive through considerations of SoBro (the South Bronx), Long Island City, but the most serious contender is a loft space near the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.

At first we were worried it would take forever to get to Gowanus, but when we drove the route a couple times it seems it will only take 35 minutes - not bad.

I was wondering whether Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to institute congestion pricing would affect us and add $16 on top of the $8+ we’re already going to pay going through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Turns out it won’t.

• The amount you pay in tolls (using EZ Pass) is deducted from the fee.
• The fee is an all-day fee - no one gets charged more than once per day.
• If you stick to the FDR, or West Side Highway (like we would be doing), or travel other approved routes to pass through Manhattan, there’s no fee.
• The fee is only charged for travel from 6am to 6pm - so we wouldn’t get charged for driving home (which we’d do after 6pm).

So, for a number of reasons it wouldn’t affect us at all…

But I’m shocked Manhattanites don’t have a problem with the plan… If you do any driving in the City during the day - including moving your car for alternate side of the street parking - you’ll get charged $4 if you go past one of the cameras that scans license plates to figure out who’s moving “in the zone”.

Personally, I feel like Manhattanites should get huge breaks from the plan, but that’s not really the case. I’m just glad we live north of 86th Street…

Want more info? Read the Mayor Bloomberg’s fact sheet on congestion pricing (PDF).