How I wish...

I picked a good time to be away from Oklahoma, even if it is Memorial Day weekend. The Senior PGA Championship is going on right now at Oak Tree Country Club in Oklahoma. It happens to be three blocks from my house.

Poor Mrs. Bogey can't even get out of our driveway due to the closed roads and unreal traffic situation. Basically she has to hunker down and wait for the storm of people to die down. Something you're used to in Oklahoma, only usually it's wind.

Speaking of wind, I don't recall watching golf events on television where they say "It looks like he read it correctly, but he didn't factor in the WIND on his PUTT." Welcome to Oklahoma, fellas.

One nice thing about having the tournament so close is that all the cruddy businesses on the street have cleaned up their acts, getting new signage and actually removing most of the rusted out old cars in their driveways.

There has also been a ton of new construction within a few miles of my little bit of acreage, so it's pretty obvious that the value of my property is on the verge of an explosion. Fortunately I should be selling just before I get any of the benefit. I will have owned it for three years in September, to which I will not make it. It still has increased in value, hopefully just enough to cover the realtor fees. I may get to keep the pennies in equity you actually get when you pay your mortgage payment every month. Woohoo!

Still looking for comparable houses here in Tennessee. I have found some land I love with houses I hate, and some houses I love on land that I hate. I know what you're thinking....new construction. You really shouldn't be thinking of that, you fool! Have you priced lumber lately? Due to Hurricane Katrina, construction prices have gotten totally unreasonable. For a decent sized house you are looking at a quarter of a million dollars in construction costs, and that doesn't even include the land.

I can't reconcile that with all the new construction around my old house in OK. I guess they started the development before the Hurricane, and were past the point of no return. Good luck to those investors. Real Estate is such a scam.