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So I'm about to get in the shower so I can wash up and then catch a shave afterward with my new Latherking hot lather machine when the power goes out. And stays out. Beloved Wife and the kids are upstairs and light shines through the windows so everyone's fine, but I'm in the downstairs bathroom, my bathroom, where all my crap is in the medicine cabinet, where there's no window and it's very dark.

Beloved Wife brings me a flashlight, but stoically I wave her off. If the grid goes down, Lord, so be it.

I shower, towel off, and the power's still off when I fill the sink with hot water for my shave. Truth be told it's not pitch black dark, just dark. I can sort of see my way around, but just barely. The mirror is useless, but I can see the razor and the brush and cream if I look down and squint.

I was going to try my new Latherking for the first time, but the Grid thought otherwise, so the hot lather spewer will have to wait. I lathered up with my Simpson Wee Scot brush and some Nancy Boy shaving cream and brought my old Gillette Super Speed DE razor to my face, slowly, because I was shaving blind.

Actually, it went surprisingly well. Amazingly well, I have to say. I guess if you do this long enough, you don't really need to watch yourself doing it. Back in the disposable Good News! razor and Gillette Foamy days I shaved in the shower for years without one of those piece-o'-crap "fogless" (please) mirrors you get for 15 clams from Sharper Image that SUCK which is why I ditched it and just shaved without one thereafter. So it can be done. I just never did it with a safety razor before today.

Okay, so I got one nick. Fine. So I rubbed an alum block on my nick in the dark, too. Lots of dark doings this morning. I felt like Daredevil, or Blind Lemon Jefferson. He played a small woman's guitar, aka "parlor" guitar, that sat high up on his whale-like belly when he played. Now, playing guitar blind? Forget it. But shaving went okay.

Tomorrow I'll have some stuff to say about the Latherking. I dicked around with it once the power came on again, and it's a pretty interesting piece of machinery. More tomorrow.