Skunk Smell and Rude Drivers in the Woodlands (Houston, Sugar Land: transfer, luxury)

[mstrat]

Our family is moving to the Woodlands next year. So far I've been three times on three weekends to the Woodlands to get everything organized with the house, job, schools etc.

I must say I love the Woodlands and I think my family is going to be very happy there.

There's two odd things I have noticed :

1.) On all three separate weekends, over a period of three months, I swear to god, on three separate ocassions, we were driving in our car and suddenly an overwhelming skunk smell penetrated the car. Lol !!! It would take 5 to 10 minutes for the skunk smell to go away. Lol!! Is this very common in the Woodlands ??

2.) I can't recall what, but I made some minor mistake because I was looking for an address and this couple behind me start flipping me off. I also saw on another two separate ocassions people flipping other people off. Lol !!!

Again.. in this very common ? If it is , that's ok.. I can adjust, I'll just have to up my attitude which is no problem for me, even though it's not really my personality.

Any comments ?

[lhafer]

Unfortunately rude drivers are everywhere! I figured out after moving here that I had to become an "aggressive" driver - i.e. drive faster, etc in order not to be run over here!! Lol

As far as the skunk smell - where's there's woods, there's wildlife! Be prepared to smell skunks, see racoons, opposums, etc (usually dead ones that have been hit by a car) because we are encroaching on their habitats. I live in Atascocita and we have all kinds of animals here. Saw a dead wild pig on the side of the road one day. You just never know!!

[Grunn]

The drivers are aggressive here in Houston because they have crappy lives and feel a sense of impotence and rage at their inability to control their own destiny.

Makes me laugh.

[lhafer]

Speak for yourself Grunn.

[ohmanon]

Have to say, the courteous drivers have, for me, been one of the pluses of living in this area vs. Houston. I think you experienced the exception rather than the rule. I don't think one person has honked at me yet and drivers wait to let me in from cross streets - I even notice they leave a space for exiting drivers in commercial centers, almost unheard of in the city so no need to "up the attitude" - the *if you can't beat 'em, join 'em* attitude is part of the whole egotistical, aggressive mess Houston drivers now deal with daily.

No skunk smell yet but they're definitely here. A couple of days ago my sister looked out her window to the deck and there was a skunk dining alfresco on the cat food, behind him was a raccoon waiting patiently for his turn and at the end of the line were a bunch of feral kittens...oh, to have a video of that!

[Sampaguita]

You're not experiencing anything unusual so don't get too worried. When we lived there we often ran across the skunk stink. Like another poster said, living in the woods, you come across lots of woodsy (& fragrant) creatures.

As for the drivers, it's not much different than anywhere else around the Houston area. Aggressive and "it's about MY time" driving seems to be the game around here.

Wait 'til you see "normal" people throwing their fast-food garbage out of their luxury SUVs or soccer-mom-mini-vans. That really had me taken aback. I've seen that in The Woodlands and Sugar Land.

[tdhg566]

When I was transferred here many years ago, I found I needed to become a much more "competitive" driver just to survive on the freeways. I also had to develop a way to dial back the behavior when I visited relatives in other states. With enough practice it becomes second nature.

As for the skunks, they come with the wooded territory (and no, they aren't unique to the Woodlands). Like the raccoons, opossums and deer. If you don't like the critters, you don't want to be in the wooded burbs around Houston.

[mstrat]

I think I didn't get my point across properly with the Skunk Smell : I'm driving along in my car and suddenly the skunk smell hits me. I didn't drive over a skunk and didn't see no skunk. Why was there a skunk smell then ? How long does Skunk Smell linger in the air ? How far away does the Skunk have to be, when it sprayed it's smell for me to pick up on the smell ? On the internet I found some info that Skunk smell is toxic.

[Sampaguita]

It can linger. I know that when we lived in TW, we could sometimes smell skunk in the house. Neighbors said they all smelled it, too. Something probably had gotten sprayed. And you don't need to drive over a skunk to smell it.

Oh...wait a minute. I just thought of something - you may have a car problem. Was your engine running hot? We've noticed what seemed like a bad skunk smell when our engine was running hot but it's when we've driven steep roads (like driving up to Denver or any surrounding higher altitudes) or there's an exhaust or transmission problem. We had the problem almost the whole way to Denver one spring. It was nauseating.

That could be what your smelling. If you didn't drive over a skunk you shouldn't have the smell lingering in your car for 5-10 min after you've left the area where you first smelled it.

[DanielWayne]

The smell lingers. If animal control was able to tolerate the smell and pick up a smashed skunk, the smell will linger and you will still get a nice whiff of it when you drive over. Or there could be a dead skunk nearby that you don't see. The smell is STRONG, but I have never heard of it being toxic. Although you would wish you were dead if you get sprayed.

I just saw a dead skunk on the way to work today and I live in Clear Lake.