Crash Course

Andy Netzel: It's 5:58 a.m. I beat the alarm by two minutes. When my brain catches up with my eyes, I remember I'm in a stranger's basement.



The bed is a mattress on the floor, next to a ping-pong table and not too far from a foosball game. It's freezing, and if this were my own bed, I'd be tempted to dawdle under the covers a while.



But I'm in an swank ranch-style home in Brunswick. The owner, Michael Flury, designed it himself before his two tours in Iraq. The TVs have big screens. Fish swim in tanks built into the walls.



Walking upstairs, it's apparent that Michael and his roommate have already gone for the day, leaving me alone in the house and trusting me to lock up. Boxes of…