Similar Stories to Mele’s Musings: I’ll Take The ‘green Prison’ Over The Concrete Jungle, Any Day on Bing News

When people ask how long my commute is to New York City from the Poconos and I tell them it’s two hours one way, they look at me horrified. “Two hours?!” they say. “That’s crazy!” No, I will tell you what is crazy: Paying rent for a postage stamp-sized apartment in New York City that is twice the amount or more than I do for my spacious house in the Poconos. Or how about dealing with the traffic and congestion of city life? The sidewalks on 8th Avenue in Manhattan are so crowded that I regularly walk in the street. Then, of course, there is the city’s “wildlife.” I’m not talking about squirrels or pigeons — I’m talking about rats. At night, they come up out of the sewer grates and swarm the garbage that is left curbside to be picked up in the morning. I am not ashamed to admit that near one particular hive of rat activity, I hug the wall to be as far away from the trash as I can. Then I run — and silently scream. In Pike County, I can live in the woods with “real” wildlife: bears, deer, raccoons, skunks, eagles, chipmunks, fox and humming birds, for instance. The number of cars that pass my street on a single day I can count on one hand.