New obsession; I hope not ANOTHER special interest!

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I've always been fascinated by things like severe weather, violent thunderstorms, tornadoes & hurricanes, and other natural disasters. Lately, for the past few months, I'm obsessed with studying the history of the failure of the Saint Francis Dam in California in 1928. It was a man-made disaster in a way, but the awesome forces which destroyed four cities in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties before the sun came up on March 12, 1928, were those of nature returning the water to where it belonged.

There's nothing weird or special about studying historical events, but I find myself getting lost in the internet reading up on the St. Francis Dam, and I've gone up to the place where it was; twice now in the past 2 weeks. I'll probably go again today if weather permits. I've made my weekend motorcycle ride on two occasions, following the 53-mile path of destruction from where the dam once stood, to the ocean. I scan the riverbed carefully, and I've spotted hunks of the dam, still to this day, 40 miles downstream. There are big pieces of concrete with rusty remains of steel beams sticking out, lying at cocked angles showing up through 83 years of sediment. It gives me goosebumps to see the bigger pieces, and imagine what kind of force it must have taken, to propel an office building-sized piece of concrete for dozens of miles!! !! ! Imagine, it would take a half dozen 100,000-pound Caterpillar D11 dozers to push something like that a few feet! I need to be careful, as I've caught myself drifting toward the edge of the twisty-turny San Francisquito Canyon Road at high speeds, while fixated on a piece of the dam . Don't worry, I'm a good rider with 30+ years experience on SoCal canyon roads.

Anyway, just sharing what might be the roots of a new special interest. I'll see how it goes.

Charles

probably just an offshoot of your weather interests-I too am into severe weather and I am on the board of the local Skywarn committee where I live and get to go the the NWS offices-I get that way too with offshoot interests.

Why do you ope it's not another special interest? Special interests are fun!

Lately I've been interested in how to knit and crochet. I'm making a scarf and have been looking up different types of crochet techniques online. It's always fun making room for a new interest. This one's an offshoot of my interest in knot tying, which have always confused me as much as they fascinate me.