Springtime in Windsor

APRIL 1, 2010—Springtime in Windsor.

You know it’s springtime in Windsor.
Those random surprisingly warm temperatures, the smell and taste of pollen in the air, the blooming trees and the return of the freighters on the Detroit River.
With that, so starts the annual tradition in many urban centres including ours -- the annual orange barrel polka.
I knew it was coming. After all, the paint marks were everywhere on Pelissier Street. It was striped with red, white, blue and orange engineered graffiti. There had been talk in the media and on the downtown streets of the impending start on the next phase.
Seven A.M. Monday March 26. I was rudely awakened with the rumble of some very large machinery outside my apartment. The entire block shook. Then the jackhammers started. The dump trucks came. The beeping of backing up machinery. Groups of construction workers and city engineers trying to look busy. Organized chaos.
By the time I had left for school, the entire street had been transformed into a messy construction zone.
The entire building was abuzz. Talk in the elevator was of how long the project was going to take. The people complained of the dirt, the noise and the inconvenience. It was the darned governments fault again.
Isn’t that always the case? People hate change. Will the little bit of inconvenience be for the good of the downtown core? We all hope so.
Seven A.M. came early everyday last week.
Who needs an alarm clock anyways?