Maria, I am just gobsmacked at the amount of shit that's been thrown at you this year. No words except I am sorry, and I wish I could help.

We're vaguely thinking about selling our Civic and getting something that can tow a small camper. Umm. What the hell would we get?

That is, by the way, a serious question. We've had the Civic for almost 5 years, and haven't actually considered replacing it before now.

According to NPR, 5 million people are without power because someone in a power plant switched out a piece of broken equipment wrong.

[link]

WTF.

I hope the port makes your life easier, ita.

The power's going to be out for a while [link] Without the Arizona intertie, Southern California doesn't have many options. It is, sadly, a predictable result of not building the ugly NIMBY power plants, but buying power from Arizona instead.

eta: The unfortunate employee was doing routine maintenance in a substation, where power from transmission lines is stepped down to a lower voltage, and did something that tripped the transmission line. Something went wrong with the safeguards that should have isolated the fault.

I just skipped 600+ messages. My life is filled with vomit and stuff I can't deal with. Work blows, but for the first time, in like ever, I don't have the largest classes in the English department -- the largest is 72 and I top out at 50.

I also think I'll be at either the UCLA ER with Grace or urgent care with Noah in the next few hours. FUN.

Anyhow,

Tavi Gevinson's Rookie went live today. Jane Pratt is official godmother.

Did anyone mention that Rio is an editor for Rookie?

Plei, it depends. How much weight are you looking to tow? You may be able to stick with a larger sedan, but I'd move to a small crossover utility vehicle. The four-cylinder Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain get 32 mpg on the highway and tows 1500 lbs. Get the V6 and you can tow 3500 lbs.

(Not promoting the GM products at the exclusion of others. It's just what I know off the top of my head without doing more research than I'm capable of tonight.)

Also, Plei, dunno about towing, but our Elantra Touring drives like a Civic, according to K, and is filled with roomy room!

Plei, I have friends with a Hyundai Tucson and use it to haul their tent trailer. They like it very much.

Oh Kat, that sounds exhausting! (Also, 72?? Do all those bodies even fit in a classroom, within fire code? Good grief!)

Oh wow. My people are hurting. I’m sorry, people. I wish I could make it better somehow. Maria, if there is anything I can do, please let me know.

San Diego, LA and Orange were (are?) out in parts. And some of northern Mexico.

ND’s sister (who lives outside of SD with his mom) called in hysterics and seemed to want him to “fix it.” Sigh.

Kat, I don’t even have words for 72 students in a high school class.