So I went to this potluck with Loren the other night. Good food. Really good food. Good people, too.

There was this one guy who was there briefly, who I didn't find out was completely blind until after he left, and his wife mentioned it.

His name was Derrek, I think. He arrived a little later than most of us, just walking along the road with his big black dog, and his walking stick (the foldable kind, so I figured he couldn't see too well, but I didn't think he was completely blind).

Now you gotta understand my first impression of this guy. My lord!

Buff as all hell. Absoloutely ripped across the shoulders.

Wearing just dark pants, and a dark singlet, and because it was sleeveless, you could see the tattoos that covered his arms, from wrists to goodness knows where.

He had a hoop earring in each ear, and an eyepatch, and he was completely smoothly bald. And tanned. His skin was near olive.

I swear to god he was secretly a pirate.

Anyway, he comes trumdling up the driveway and stops about ten feet from us no prop, and Mark, the guy who's house it was, just went over and Derrek put his hand on Mark's arm and Mark led him to a seat.

We all introduced ourselves. (Derrek thought my laugh sounded like Cameron Diaz. I don't think so at all.)

But the weird thing is, that really threw me off, was that he'd *focus* on who ever he was talking to. He'd *look*. He didn't stare off into space or anything, he'd really focus on you when you were talking.

Which led me to believe he could see shapes out of his one eye, but apparently not. Apparently it's all black to him.

"He doesn't want to be like other blind people," his wife, Rebecca, told me later. "His sister used to tease him when he first started going blind, because he would rock, like Stevie Wonder."

But he just lives in the boonies with his wife, runs every day "down by the docks and along the beach, then up along the road and home again".

"Come by sometime," he said. "You'll probably find me sittin' on my porch, in my rocking chair, smoking my pipe...Yep, I'm all set for old age."

It was a really good time.

Derrek left pretty early, before the rest of the band showed.

"Big crowds don't do well with him," Rebecca explained.

I don't doubt it. The half dozen people there must have been hard enough to focus on.

Loren and the band played their set for us, and we all clapped after every song.

It was lots of fun.

And now, I go eat breakfast. Brunch. What ever.

.

Rosie.

Before&After