It’s 2011.
Where’s my damn jetpack?
OK, I know. They do exist now, they’re just not exactly available for your average housewife to purchase and go running errands in. Child safety seats are probably a few years behind, anyway.
A few months ago I stumbled upon an article about Robert Heinlein’s Colorado Springs house being on the market. (Damn, now I’m going to have to waste an hour looking for it. Damn OCD. I’m also saying damn way too much.) Oh… surprise… I found an article in less than two minutes! Oh, and here’s the SFscope article about it going on the market, and an old Popular Mechanics article with the best pictures.
I’m not going to go on describing the house here. That’s what links are for. The point is, it was the dream house he and his wife built with all the modern conveniences that could be had in 1951. It was quite futuristic for its time.
Heinlein built in Colorado Springs partly because it was so far from any military target, it should be a nice, safe place even if the country went to war. Imagine his disgust and frustration when Cheyenne mountain (overlooking the Springs) became one of the foremost military targets! They left Colorado and moved to California in the sixties. Other owners performed extensive renovations and enlarged the house.
I have a dream, and it involves more than a jetpack. I want this house. Of course, we would have to be wealthy and successful enough to justify a second home, as neither the original nor the renovated version would suit my family’s lifestyle. The location is ideal (and I really do mean ideal for us!) It’s one of the nicest old neighborhoods in Colorado Springs.
I imagine having our family’s home somewhere nearby, perhaps even an adjacent property. The Heinlein house would become part writer’s studio, part museum. Not just a Heinlein museum, or even a sci-fi museum. I’d love to see the Flintstone’s car in the driveway. A smaller space-shuttle replica designed for kids to climb out in the yard. Inside would be some displays showcasing the modern conveniences Heinlein designed. A model of the house as it originally was. A library.
For the writers, I’d like a guest den where aspiring writers could go for a few hours to write undisturbed. Great for NaNoWriMo! As art on the walls, I’d have not just images, but words. My Google Plus feed (which is 90% writers ATM) has had a video and still image of “Advice to a beginning writer” That would be cool to have on the wall. If it didn’t consume too much energy, the video version would make an interesting piece of art. Another interesting piece of art would be to have a frame with a twitter feed, or combined social media feed from various celebrities or writers. I’d have one that included George Takei and Will Wheaton and other SyFy actors’ tweets. Add Felicia Day to that and it would probably fill itself! Another could have romance and erotica writers such as Daisy Harris, Tiffany Reisz, Kieran Kramer and Courtney Milan. Of course, this area would have to have a warning about adult content. Especially Tiffany… yes, definitely adult content. Another could have tweets from Writer’s Digest, TOR, and other giants of publishing. Maybe another could be programmed to search for hashtags, or whatever was trending.
I want a jukebox that looks old, but is actually modern. I want to be able to browse through songs and create a playlist-of-the-moment, or tune it to a Pandora station. I want to be able to delete requests if someone fills the playlist with too much Neil Diamond.
Food… must be available, but not prevalent. Probably not for guests visiting the museum, just for writers who are working there. And I always have my cats nearby when I write… but they’re indoor cats, and I wouldn’t want to take them outside to move between the family home and the writer’s den.
We’ll just have to build some underground tunnels to connect the Heinlein house to the bomb shelter (a Heinlein addition) and the family house.
Hmm… this dream is getting pretty big.
Time to stop blogging and get back to #AmWriting or the whole thing is pointless anyway!
:*
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AmyBeth Inverness 
Where’s My Jetpack?
Where’s my damn jetpack?
OK, I know. They do exist now, they’re just not exactly available for your average housewife to purchase and go running errands in. Child safety seats are probably a few years behind, anyway.
A few months ago I stumbled upon an article about Robert Heinlein’s Colorado Springs house being on the market. (Damn, now I’m going to have to waste an hour looking for it. Damn OCD. I’m also saying damn way too much.) Oh… surprise… I found an article in less than two minutes! Oh, and here’s the SFscope article about it going on the market, and an old Popular Mechanics article with the best pictures.
I’m not going to go on describing the house here. That’s what links are for. The point is, it was the dream house he and his wife built with all the modern conveniences that could be had in 1951. It was quite futuristic for its time.
Heinlein built in Colorado Springs partly because it was so far from any military target, it should be a nice, safe place even if the country went to war. Imagine his disgust and frustration when Cheyenne mountain (overlooking the Springs) became one of the foremost military targets! They left Colorado and moved to California in the sixties. Other owners performed extensive renovations and enlarged the house.
I have a dream, and it involves more than a jetpack. I want this house. Of course, we would have to be wealthy and successful enough to justify a second home, as neither the original nor the renovated version would suit my family’s lifestyle. The location is ideal (and I really do mean ideal for us!) It’s one of the nicest old neighborhoods in Colorado Springs.
I imagine having our family’s home somewhere nearby, perhaps even an adjacent property. The Heinlein house would become part writer’s studio, part museum. Not just a Heinlein museum, or even a sci-fi museum. I’d love to see the Flintstone’s car in the driveway. A smaller space-shuttle replica designed for kids to climb out in the yard. Inside would be some displays showcasing the modern conveniences Heinlein designed. A model of the house as it originally was. A library.
For the writers, I’d like a guest den where aspiring writers could go for a few hours to write undisturbed. Great for NaNoWriMo! As art on the walls, I’d have not just images, but words. My Google Plus feed (which is 90% writers ATM) has had a video and still image of “Advice to a beginning writer” That would be cool to have on the wall. If it didn’t consume too much energy, the video version would make an interesting piece of art. Another interesting piece of art would be to have a frame with a twitter feed, or combined social media feed from various celebrities or writers. I’d have one that included George Takei and Will Wheaton and other SyFy actors’ tweets. Add Felicia Day to that and it would probably fill itself! Another could have romance and erotica writers such as Daisy Harris, Tiffany Reisz, Kieran Kramer and Courtney Milan. Of course, this area would have to have a warning about adult content. Especially Tiffany… yes, definitely adult content. Another could have tweets from Writer’s Digest, TOR, and other giants of publishing. Maybe another could be programmed to search for hashtags, or whatever was trending.
I want a jukebox that looks old, but is actually modern. I want to be able to browse through songs and create a playlist-of-the-moment, or tune it to a Pandora station. I want to be able to delete requests if someone fills the playlist with too much Neil Diamond.
Food… must be available, but not prevalent. Probably not for guests visiting the museum, just for writers who are working there. And I always have my cats nearby when I write… but they’re indoor cats, and I wouldn’t want to take them outside to move between the family home and the writer’s den.
We’ll just have to build some underground tunnels to connect the Heinlein house to the bomb shelter (a Heinlein addition) and the family house.
Hmm… this dream is getting pretty big.
Time to stop blogging and get back to #AmWriting or the whole thing is pointless anyway!
:*
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About AmyBeth Inverness
A writer by birth, a redhead by choice.