Trials of the Weather, Pleasures of the Trail - Dreaming

"No light, but rather darkness visible" Milton, Paradise Lost

I awoke from dreaming to the noise of crashing trees and sluicing rain. I lay there with my eyes closed, then opened them - nothing. I closed them again and re-opened them. There was no difference, everything was black. I squinted and tried to see the outline of my hand, nothing. I looked for the bright white band of the tent zipper, nothing. I was blind! Curiously I didn't panic. I began to think, well, I can't go over the pass tomorrow, but how will we get back down the trail? I pondered the various projects I was working on, thinking about the blind PhD student I knew from Clare Hall working on software to summarize and read text aloud. I hoped he was finished. Then it occurred to me that it might be an opportunity to improve my German. Finally I decided it might just be really, really dark and I just couldn't see anything. I put off further thinking and went back to sleep.