My coworker Greg and I were discussing his upcoming “cross country” flight to the Outer Banks. He mentioned flying near a CIA base in the area. It took me a while, but I eventually recalled reading about such a base on Paul Freeman’s Abandonded and Little-Known Airfields page.

Its funny how CIA bases which “don’t officially exist” can have such publicity on the web. For instance, The Independent Weekly did a cover story on Harvey Point two years ago. As did the New York Times in 1998. Freeman has a nice picture of the 4,000 foot airstrip which doesn’t exist, not appearing on any sectional chart or map. That runway is in great shape for not existing, don’t you think?

Apparently, the base is used as “terrorism school” for foreign and domestic intelligence operatives. It chills me to think what might be taught there. As you can see by this recounting by the Independent Weekly, the base isn’t exactly used for Boy Scout summer camp. It isn’t a stretch to imagine Osama Bin Laden being trained there in the early 80’s, back when he was Our Man In Afghanistan.

Well, we’ve had the sign in the front lawn less than 48 hours. In that time, we’ve given away 12 fliers and had two calls from interested parties. The website has proven very popular, too, with an impressive number of visits. To top it all off, we’ve got our very first showing tomorrow evening!

I had to surpress a laugh when the caller asked “have you had any offers yet?” We both expected to generate some interest, but not quite this soon. We spent the evening dashing around the house, cleaning it as best we could for our first guest.

It’s not sold yet, not by a longshot. I mean, we’re not fooling ourselves. Plenty can happen between now and when a buyer signs on the dotted line. But the interest that’s been generated in these two days is more than we expected. I have a very good feeling that we’ll get the offer we want for this house and it will happen soon.

As part of our research, I found a place in town which offers a listing in the Triangle MLS for $500. Should we run out of leads with our sign-in-front-yard approach, we can go with Carolinas Choice Real Estate with minimal risk. If an agent brings us a buyer, we pay the 2.4% commission, but we still make out better than most sellers. If the buyer searches MLS and buys it without an agent, we’re only out the $500 listing fee! Nowadays, anyone can search MLS without going through an agent, so the odds of getting a no-agent deal seem pretty good.

As a side note, we may be willing to pay a tidy finder’s fee if any of the dozen or so MT.Net readers sends us the buyer. Not only that, but you’ll be lavishly lauded here on MT.Net for all the neighborhood to see. You get some cash and the fame that only MT.Net can provide!

Now go get your friends a nice house!

Do you think this guy has a lucky star? A guy was saved by crashing his car Friday. He was driving on I-40 near Hickory when he began to choke on the food he was eating.

Just as he was passing out, his pickup crossed the median and got hit by a truck. The impact dislodged the food in his throat, allowing him to breathe. He crawled out of the wreck with just minor scratches, even though he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt.

I figure he cheated death at least three times during that sequence of events. If I had been the trooper who charged him with reckless driving (he was eating, after all), I’d have been careful not to stand too close to him for fear of a lightning strike or meteor falling out of the sky or something.

We just got back from our WalkAmerica event, the March of Dimes fundraiser for research into premature births. There were thousands of people there helping raise money to help prevent premature births.

Thanks to your generosity, Team Hallie raised over $900 to help fund this important research. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this wonderful cause. Hallie thanks you, too.

Know anyone looking for a great house in the heart of Garner? Send ’em over to GreatGarnerHome.Com, where they can tour a fine, fine home.

Spread the word!

Got this spam message in today. At least they’re getting more creative..
—

From: “Darla Link”
Reply-To: “Darla Link”
Subject: Osama Bin Laden Captured
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 17:32:15 +0200

Just got this from CNN
Osama Bin Laden has just been captured!
A video and some pictures have been released.
Goto the link below for pictures, I will update the page with the video as soon as I can:
http://some IP address/pics/
God Bless America!

This song won’t be on the worst songs list.
—
There is freedom within, there is freedom without
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup
There’s a battle ahead, many battles are lost
But you’ll never see the end of the road
While you’re traveling with me
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Thanks to MT.Net reader #7 Mike B., I can now present you with the fifty worst songs ever. Topping the list is that 80’s standard “We Built This City” By Jefferson Starship.

Now, I have a confession to make. I actually had that stupid song in my head when I was on the way to work earlier this week. I had to hear it again. Once I heard it, my strange craving for it disappeared again.

I try not to listen too hard when I do hear it, because the lyrics are truly, truly bad. But the line “Marconi plays the mamba” sticks in my head, in spite of everything.

Sometimes bad songs say so much, to paraphrase Elton John (who has written his share of clunkers, too).

Lots of stuff going on. I’ve got my fingers in too many pies lately. Selling the house, buying a new house, cleaning the house we have, being a daddy, planning for our future. On and on and on and on. It gives me less time for everything, blogging included.

I did get some time today to go golfing with the sales department. We played 18 at the Neuse golf course. It was the first time I’d touched clubs in over a decade, and it showed. Still, we all had fun. A bad day at golf beats a good day at work, any day.
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