Spectacular Panorama - California Brush Fire

San Diego - 2007

I found a site with nothing but 360 degree panoramic shots of an incredible range of eye-popping subjects. The video linked below will connect you with the site. I chose a shot from the Redondo Beach fire as an example. Our California conflagrations are legendary, and so are the firefighters who battle them.

In late October 2007, half of San Diego County was on fire. After a hot, difficult week of trying to control the blazing inferno, two fire trucks pulled up my street on Halloween night and parked in front of my house while the kids were trick-or-treating. A crowd of excited kids and wary neighbors gathered expecting to be evacuated.

The firefighters, many with children of their own, couldn't be home with their kids. Six or seven of them in firefighting gear climbed off their trucks holding their helmets upside down, each brimming with candy. Weary and worn, they worked their way through the crowd handing out candy. It was a touching scene I'll never forget. We love our firefighters!

http://www.panoramas.dk/US/california-wildfire.html

The Water Tower - Digging up the Past

Hello from Washtenaw County, home of The University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. I am in Michigan doing research for my next writing project, which has the working title of The Water Tower. From July of 1967 until July of 1969, a phantom killer left two college campuses in a state of sustained fear and terror.

John Norman Collins is reputed to have tortured, murdered and mutilated seven young woman from the AnnArbor/Ypsilanti area. He was convicted of only one of the murders, but many questions have been left unanswered in the rush to get him off the streets before he could strike again.

There is a strong feeling that Collins did not always act alone. Did he have an accomplice? Is that person still out roaming among us? Surely someone else was at least aware or suspected that Collins might be the guilty party.

And then there are those who believe in the innocence of John Norman Collins after all these years. The suspected psychopath, a clean cut Catholic kid from Centerline, Michigan? It couldn't be.

Several people have come forward with new information regarding this case. There is more story here and I mean to tell it.