So I woke up this morning and thought I'd gone blind. It's true. I couldn't see a freaking thing. Nothing. I waved my hand in front of my face. I couldn't see it. I peered through what I judged to be the bedroom doorway, into the kitchen and the bathroom, both equipped with nightlights. Pitch black. I looked in the direction of my bedroom window, which is usually illuminated by streetlamps or the morning sun, however dim and grey. No light. Inky blackness everywhere I turned.
"Have I gone blind?" I wondered. I felt a little afraid. Could you go blind overnight? Maybe. How had it happened? Was it because I've been spending so much time under the hot sun, photographing houses? But I've been wearing a hat! No sunglasses though. Oh my god. What if I am blind? There goes my career, not to mention this fabulous summer job. Whoever heard of a blind photographer? I'm blind. Christ! I knew I had poor eyesight but I didn't think I would go blind. Especially not overnight. Shit. But my hearing is still really good - listen to that freight train go over the CPR tracks just down the street. That rumble, and the grinding of steel on steel. Sounds like it's going West. It's going to The Junction, where the trains don't stop anymore. Wow, I don't think I've ever heard the train that clearly before. Why is it so freaking quiet in here?
And then the power came back on. The lights on my printer and my modem winked at me in the dim-darkness. The refrigerator resumed its persistent dialtone hum in the night-lit kitchen, and in the laundry room, the dehumidifer started to suck the water out of the air with its customary noisy gusto.
Such is a power failure in a basement apartment.
