AV: Hellmouthwash

The fires in San Diego (the center of MY universe) are dying and I'm spent. Drained. Tired. A bit numb, if you must know. I can barely bring myself to write about it, except for I figure most everyone else out there (this means you, "Bunch") hasn't been saturated with it all in quite the way that I have. And I don't have the energy to write much on the ongoing-ness of it all.

But here's some updates:
Google Maps and the LA Times, and KPBS (my local NPR station) in conjunction with San Diego State University have put links to regional fire maps on the Google Map home page. I think it's a good sign that I can be impressed by the technology and its adaptation to real time need rather than just think it's mindbendingly horrific.

Here's the link directly to the San Diego fire map (shows perimeter of burn areas, still-burning areas, and icons depicting all manner of services and public safety information). Cool!

http://tinyurl.com/32cavf

Updates on friends:
Most have found their way back to homes that are still standing and, in some cases, miraculously undamaged. Those who were staying with me are back in the land of Rancho and just trying to breathe in the crappy air. One has mowed her lawn and is awaiting the return of the birds to the space just beyond her back fence, a small patch of wildlife refuge area.

One has lost her home on the San Pasqual Academy. She's a resident instructor there (part of the "grandparent" program) and they're taking good care of her. Still, she's got the key to my place and knows she has room to spread on her own, or just watch some tv with the kitty.

More stories to follow, I'm sure.

But! For me? Today Aida and I are heading up to UCLA Royce Hall to see Sir Ian McKellan and the Royal Shakespeare Company in the only freaking West coast engagement of "King Lear."

This, my friends, is a testament to the essential moral goodness of obsessive email checking. Were I not someone who checks my email Often (upper case "O"), I would not have received word in time that the good folks at UCLA Live! had released more tix to the public.

I managed to find three seats together in the balcony for me, my partner, and my brother Richard (who lives in LA). But it's okay. They're in the theatre and that's all I care about.BTW, for the thrifty among you, these $40 tickets are now reselling for ~$500 apiece. The good ones are fetching $1000.

Me? I need the road trip, Boy Howdy.

Rodney, I'm leaving my toenail clippers at home.