So there's this old man that lives on the corner of my intersecting streets who sits in his wheel chair wearing an old man hat that stares off in to space. He doesn't stare off to space in the sad "I'm not all here" way. He does it in a "I'm thinking a lot" kind of way. He looks like an older Bill Cosby, which is why I have dubbed him Cliff( Pop culture time! Cliff was Bill Cosby's name on the Cosby show. Just so you know, F.Y.I.)

Anyway, in the year that I've lived in my neighborhood I've seen him almost daily. He sits all proper with his hands in his lap dressed like he is going to go to church. When people walk by, especially the ladies, he will nod and smile. When dogs go by he will bark and laugh because, well, that scares the shit out of dogs. And when I walk by, I swear to God, he always winks.

We've evolved. I used to just swoop by him on my way home and not say anything with an ipod blasting in my ears, a grocery bag or a coffee in had, or something distracting me. Just another guy in the neighborhood I would always think to myself. Unlike Wisconsin, people don't really chat with the neighbors they see outside. Then one day I nodded when I tried to slip around his wheel that was blocking the sidewalk.

"Hello." He said laughing in a way old men laugh when they think anything is funny just because at that age everything probably is funny.

After that it was always a mutual "Hello" and a smile. Within weeks it was a wave without a hello and then after that it was just a wink. On his part. When he winks, I always smile so I know he knows I know he's winking.

Then the other day, I was walking home with a newly purchased books in hand. It was a sunny day and he was under a tree with leaves turning that orange burnt color. As I walked by I looked him through my aviators just expecting the wink when: Nothing.

He didn't do a thing. He looked at me and looked away and that was it.

As I steered around the corner and headed to my apartment I couldn't help but think: Did I piss him off!??!?!?!! No wink? Eye contact with no wink?!

As I sat in my apartment trying to work on this freelance piece, I kept thinking about Cliff and what I could have done to not get that wink. Did I ignore him one day? Did he think it was time to evolve in to not knowing each other again?

Yes, I know this is crazy. The man has to be in his 80's. He has to see tons of people a day. Am I really that insecure to dwell on the fact that an old man who I dubbed a faux character name didn't wink at me? But it wasn't about that. It's about those little things that people do that just make you realize you're there. You know, the way the girl at my coffee place always says: "Hey boo, you having the same thing today?" That reminds me that she pays attention. Or the Whole Foods girl that looks like my friend Gina who always tells me that my smile makes her smile. It's those things, you know? When you live in a city with tons of people, you want to be reminded that some people still see you.

I haven't seen Cliff for, like, six days since the "no-winking" incident of 2008. I'm sure he's on some sort of old man vacation or barking at dogs somewhere else. But I'm determined to get that wink back.