As a Simpsons-loving Milwaukee homeowner, the arrival of the "slurry" trucks yesterday morning made me think of two things:

1) The Simpsons episode when Lisa is talked into teaming up with Mr. Burns to help him turn his life around and unwittingly becomes the girl adorning the Lil Lisa Fish Slurry packaging.

2) A special tax assessment adorning this year's tax bill to pay for the steamy black stuff being dropped and swept on the street in front on my house.

The day before the yellow trucks arrived, a yellow door hanger showed up explaining parking restrictions and what slurry seal is.

"An asphalt sealcoat will be applied to your street," it said. "This is a very economical surface treatment that prolongs the life of the asphalt by stopping erosion from water and oxidation from the sun. Timely preventative maintainance like this helps avoid extremely costly street rebuilding in the future."

The results, so far, have been:

1) My son enjoying the rumbling yellow trucks and the workers with brooms sweeping the slurry smooth.

2) The complete blackening of the road, changing the look of the street.

3) The disappearance of the spider web of tar repairs that made our street -- and most others in the city -- look a little like the early days of a late-period Jackson Pollock canvas.

4) The sight of one poor worker ankle deep in water looking for sewers during yesterday's downpour, so he could remove the protective covers placed over them in advance of the slurrying.

Most of our neighborhood has been slurry sealed (is that a verb?) and so have some streets in nearby neighborhoods like Washington Park.

Although Cecilia Gilbert of the DPW didn't respond to my e-mailed question about whether or not the whole city is being slurried, she did reassure me that I'm not paying extra for it.

"Slurry is considered a maintenance operation," she wrote back, "no assessment."