Prepper's Blind Alley

Where do I begin? At the beginning. What is important? I have been legally
blind which is to say, not totally blind since I was born. I had too much
oxygen when born so lost vision through retinal detachment and four other
diseases which came later in my teens and twenties. So, in the beginning, I
had color vision and could yes, see the sky, the green grass, my collie
walking around but couldn’t distinguish details of anybody’s face. Now
however, I have closer to just light perception and perhaps a bit more, can
see a car a couple of feet away from me. Not much so that is why at age 19 I
applied to the Seeing Eye for my first guide dog. I got through the next
year of high school with her, and then I went off to college living away
from my parents in a dorm. This was the best thing since I needed to find
out if a blind person could survive alone. I had a good time at college and
went home on weekends getting on the commuter rail going in and out of
Boston. After that time, and four years of college, I got jobs as a social
worker in Boston and had my apartments around that area for almost fifteen
years. That isn’t where I live now. I live on the coast. This went on for
years but finally I quit that job due to the fact my eye condition
deteriorated, and I needed extensive surgeries to correct the problems
caused by chronic glaucoma. Then I was married to a night club performer for
seven years spending five years out in California. I came back to the east
coast when our marriage failed and he kicked me out and had been living with
my mother after attempting to go back to college for awhile after I got
back. Finally my father died and then my mother went into a nursing home
with Alzheimer’s disease where I visit her now. These are the essential
facts of my life. I have Harpo, my fourth Seeing Eye dog, and I live with
also sixteen guinea pigs which I’m raising. Other hobbies are playing all
kinds of instruments including my guitar which I have played since age nine.
Other instruments include flute, recorder, tin whistle, and keyboards. I did
play a saxophone in high school in a dance band too. I have performed on
stage several times and for parties and nursing homes although not
professionally getting paid for it. I have also played for science fiction
conventions in the area. I like to swim, read historic novels, and take long
walks with my dog. That just about says it all, and so this is my basic
biography and should satisfy the request I had this afternoon.