Monday – Rolled out of bed to a breakfast of cereal and a bit of last night’s pizza.  Last night on the picket line, we ordered a few pizzas from a local place.  When the delivery guy got to us, we chastised him for crossing the picket line.  He backed up for a sec, but we all burst out laughing because we were all kidding.

Tuesday – Woke up late and couldn’t find the right sandwich board.  I was up all the previous night getting the colours right.  Had a rousing debate with my wife about what appropriate “power colours” are, red on black, or black on red.  Scrambled around the house in time to find an “Arbitration Makes This Go Away” sign and taped it onto my chest.  It took me until I was almost at the picket line to realise the wonderful irony in me wearing this sign, but continued to wear it anyway.  We could all use a good laugh.

Wednesday – No one got the irony in me wearing that sign so I went to Freedom Festival for a proper snow cone and was yelled at by people in the carnival who wanted me to “step right up” and “win this lovely stuffed panther”.  Wasn’t sure if it was cool with whoever is in charge, so I calmly ignored them on my way to standing in front of a few lawnmowers I heard starting up nearby.

Thursday – Lawnmowers turned out to be gas powered leaf blowers, got debris in my eye.  On my way to the walk in clinic downtown, took a break on the front of an idling bus.  People were again yelling at me, including the driver.  I find this bizarre, since who among us hasn’t taken a well deserved rest on the front of an idling bus downtown in the middle of the afternoon?

Friday – Finding interesting uses for the “Arbitration…” signs.  One use is we put them in front of the river, or in front of the Ambassador Bridge, or in front of the “Welcome to Windsor” sign.  We all get a good, well deserved laugh out of this.  Took a walk in South Windsor, ran into the mayor as he was exiting his house.  I tried saying hello to him but he seemed in a big hurry and ignored me, even though I and five of my friends were in the middle of his driveway.  Oh well.

Saturday – Poop plant detail.  The higher ups got wind of my escapades at the Freedom Festival and put me on poop plant detail at the Lou Romano Water Reclamation Plant as punishment.  When I arrived in the morning the grizzled leader of this picket, we will call him Tango, told me in a hardened Eastwood-esque voice “Welcome to Hell”.  We sat underneath a blue tarp and complained about the smell.  Someone spoke up and said “If you think this is bad, wait until the after dinner rush!”  My heart sank as I knew my olfactory nerves were in for a sound beating that night.  Someone passed out bounce sheets and another was constantly spraying Febreeze, but it didn’t do any good.  “Welcome to Hell” indeed.

Sunday – Went to the Central Yard to visit some old friends and to rejoin the Garbage Bag Tossing Olympics.  My previous record is 33 feet, but was disqualified due to the fact the bag was full of discarded milk bags.  We were all in a friendly mood, so we decided to try and chat to the citizens who kindly take time off from their lucrative automotive industry jobs to bring their waste to us.  Some are very hostile, perhaps anxious to get back to that line and put another fender on that minivan, or something.  Spent rest of day napping on discarded couch.  When I woke up, I was covered in strike signs.  I woke up to a television crew who wanted to interview me.  “How nice of them” I thought and proceeded to tell them my opinions and reactions to the lastest current events.  It wasn’t until after the interview that I caught a glimse of myself in a mirror.  Someone had shaved off part of my eyebrow and no one had told me!

I hope this summer never ends. 

Tags: City Hall, Class structure, clustering, sustainable city