Awesome Building Technology

I’ve mentioned in the past that I enjoy getting to and from my house by going around the back of the neighborhood via the golf course. Over the past year, on one of the lots, there has been activity and so I’ve been curious as to what was being built.

The land was cleared and an area was set aside for what looked like a foundation; the sand being molded to a specific rectangular shape. Some of the more affluent folks live in that area and have built guest houses, barbeque facilities or huge garages on the land directly behind their palaces and my guess was that a similar structure was about to go up since the size of the “foundation” was smaller than would accommodate a house.

About a month ago a huge wrought iron fence was installed, complete with two fancy automatic retractable gates and a horse shoe shaped cement driveway; still no foundation where the ground had been prepared. That area went undisturbed while shrubs and trees were hauled in by the truck load and placed on the land. Several were planted while others, some Magnolia trees, were left on their side for some reason. Each time I drove by I wondered why they were leaving the Magnolia trees there to die, as if they’d miscounted and had purchased more than could be planted. I had to wonder what was going on in their minds; almost as if they’d done it all backwards, trees and shrubs, the fence, the driveway before putting in the structure.

This morning on the way to church the gates had been rolled back, a car was in the driveway and some folks were sitting in lawn chairs under those newly planted trees. Lucy laughed that maybe the house was invisible; not at all sure why she’d even said such a ridiculous thing.

I read a Sci-fi short story by Heinlein years ago where the houses had interesting geometry, rooms extending out in such a way as to be physically impossible to build without some trick. Wow; it dawned on me that the house had been built already in such a way as to be invisible. The sand, below where the foundation would have been poured concrete, had been poured, only with some invisible aggregate. The frame had been established with some technological breakthrough material that reflected light, much as a stealth aircraft deflects scanned radar beacons. These people were already living in the house that was probably full of neat modern furniture, oriental rugs, plasma televisions on every wall and state of the art kitchen appliances. The bathrooms have self cleaning showers, tubs and toilets. The bedrooms have deep pile carpets with heart shaped sculpted designs while the study and library were all finished with Brazilian hardwood floors. The only reason we were able to see these folks was because they’d come outside to enjoy the morning air, read the Sunday paper and relax in the yard.

I wonder what they do for a living; silly thought, the must be retired.