Between Yesterday and Tomorrow

I love the NY Times crossword puzzles because of the unexpected word games sometimes embedded within them. So what's DEEF? DEEF in the across squares would be FEEDback, in the same sense that DEF in the down squares would be FEDup. And before the year is over, I thought I'd include a bit more of the feedback I've received. And no, I'm not fed up!

SENIOR LOUNGE:
I talked to my parents about the lounge issue here. They were kind of stunned. They spend so much time working/socializing at their senior center (in Fond du Lac) that they couldn't comprehend how you could have a functioning senior center without a lounge! My dad has spent a lot of time renovating theirs by putting in a pool room (pool tables, not swimming like I first thought!). It's a major part of their socialization. I just can't believe Shorewood made such a huge oversight when designing the current center.
Emma P

Does this have to be seniors only? Would be a great place for everyone --maybe a bit of a coffee shop.
Though we are crawling with coffee shops having a truly public space would be beneficial to our culture.
Keith S

ATWATER BLUFF
For the last two decades or so I have been removing invasives from Big Bay Park which is near Pandles. Many people stop and chat. I should keep a journal. Now we have butterflies and birds instead of burdock, garlic mustard and invasive thistles.
Ney.

BIKE PATH
I've been following your blog, and I was wondering, what is your perception of how safe the bike trail is during the day when it's pretty deserted? I have been biking down to the lakefront and back at odd hours during the day instead of around lunchtime or after 5, and often I don't see anyone, or just one or two people, the whole way. Am I being risky?
Nancy

INTRODUCTION DESCRIBING SHOREWOOD
It reminded me of just why I loved Shorewood so much and of how much I miss it now that I live in Milwaukee. I feel much the same about it, the charm is in the people you chat with and in the memories of places and people lost. I kind of cringe whenever there is talk of a major development project much like what is going on at the edge of Whitefish Bay/Glendale.
B. G.

SENIOR LOUNGE PETITION

12/23/06, 2:30 AM The senior lounge is sinking, and I'm about to jump off the boat to rescue it. Then I don't. I realize if I drown I can't write blogs. Or do I jump in anyway? That's the thing about waking up and looking back at a dream: what really happened? Well, none of it!

Now I'm wide awake pondering
DREAM, a funny word, a double edged sword
Sleeping dreams may reflect what we fear
Waking dreams what we wish for
Which is fine if we know our priorities
Otherwise daydreams are a prior tease...

12/23/06, 12:40 PM At that point I placed my pad and pen, back on the floor and went to sleep again, leaving priorities and prior tease for another day, no idea when.

12/22/06 I picked up a Senior Resource Center calendar when I cut through the library yesterday on my way to the Fitness Center. January's a month with stretch, Qi Gong, and Yoga classes, an artist club, book club, bridge, bingo, sheepshead, Quiggler, lunches, movies. It's a great resource with a hole in the middle: no lounge. And I hope that hole will be filled soon. Steve's on-line petition for those who missed the off-line petition is a good idea, though who will know it's there? Perhaps only those who read our blogs! Thus far it has added 24 signatures to the original 137, but a petition shouldn't be necessary at all for such a commonsensical issue.

12/18/06 If I were a senior... Actually, I am. I just don't think of myself that way, unless I glimpse my reflection or feel all my creaks, twinges, and pangs. The sixteen-year-old is still here; however she now has eight grandchildren. Anyway, if I hung out at the Senior Center, and several of my friends do, I suspect I'd want a lounge.

It seems curious that an expensive new library (or isn't it new anymore?), built with senior center and community rooms on the lower level, made no provision for a gathering place. When I think back to important places in my life, the first, and sometimes the only, image that pops into my mind is the lounge! At Oberlin, it was the dorm lounges and the library study room, really a smoking room, where students gabbed and flirted; at London School of Economics, I spent my days in the refectory meeting people from all over the British Empire; at Columbia University, it was the Lion's Den. At hotels, where do people linger and meet? The lounge.

The Senior Resource Center has a book club, bridge games, talks, performances, trips, but without a lounge, when nothing's going on, there's really nothing going on. Shorewood is loquacious, full of cafes, restaurants, organizations, informal groups and clubs, community activities, sociable stores, and even sociable sidewalks (which is not true everywhere on the North Shore). Still, I think older people, many of whom live alone, need a place to relax, meet, and mingle.

If I'd known about it, I would gladly have signed the 137-signature petition delivered to the Village Board asking for a senior lounge. Instead here's my one-person petition.

Sudden winter can mean sudden slips. So on Sunday I was thankful to make it, in tennis shoes and added cleats, to a special event at Schwartz on Oakland: the opening of a show of photographs taken by 13-year-old Ben Pagenkopf, who has high-functioning autism, and a unique, artist's eye. He notices the little details and relationships of forms that most people just walk on past as they chatter on their cells. And he automatically frames them in his mind before he presses the shutter. Several of his photos were of the spot where I tend to end up, Atwater Bluff. He, too, is lured by the array of native plants and graceful grasses (which might not be native).

And on Monday I made it to the Fitness Center. It did occur to me to take Joe Mangiamele's advice in his blog and walk back and forth in the business district, instead of risking my life on the High School sidewalk. Wouldn't it be ironic to meet my demise on my way to work out?

Actually what I met was some of the older residents who live at the south end of Shorewood balancing groceries and themselves on their way home. By Wednesday the walk was walkable for those who go on foot to fitness, or to Sendiks.

12/3/06 The sun shone on snow yesterday, and blotches of ice stuck to sidewalks. I slipped cleats onto my shoes and set out for the Shorewood Community Fitness Center. Though wary of walking, I was warier still of biking. I slogged through snow wherever possible, snow's safer than ice, walked in the street at times, headed for the west side of Oakland, which is usually clear. And it was, until I arrived at Shorewood High School. That sidewalk is usually treacherous; maybe the village should give itself a citation. Well, there's no story here, I didn't fall! But I certainly didn't feel like a fit lynx slinking sure-footed through civilization.

Why was my mind playing with that image as I shuffled and slogged? Fitlinxx is the Fitness Center's version of Big Brother. Each machine has its screen, and if you agree to it, select a password, and input all the necessary information, computers will keep track of your workouts for you. No more pencil and paper and tired fingers. Just relax and lift your weights and stare at the screen! It'll tell you where to set the seat, how much weight to lift, what you did last time. It'll track your range of motion, congratulate you when you're in target range, even warn you if you're lifting too little, too much, or too fast. Actually it's fun. And it motivates. Anyway, life's about linking, but the definition of linking has changed.

12/1/06 December dropped in on us today. So we think we know what's on deck from here on in: one reminder after another of why some seniors go South. I'll stick it out here, bow to winter, skip the biking on ice, which I used to think of as cross-country skiing on wheels.

Two days ago my 5-year-old grandson and I picked broccoli and Brussels sprouts in my garden. Now my remaining arrugula, chives, and Chinese greens are buried, and I have to hope that the sidewalks are walkable, despite the fact that Shorewood no longer plows them when the snow is deep. Growing seasons all over the world are about a week longer; this year was a record for me. I wonder how many records we're setting world wide. I just had the left-over Brussels sprouts for lunch, and now I'll test out the snow.