
You may have seen speed humps. You may have found them annoying. I used to. But I began to see speed humps from a different point of view when I moved to a residential street that some drivers seemed to think made an ideal speedway.
When our street was presented with the opportunity to get speed humps, a few like-minded neighbors joined us in canvassing the block to get the necessary votes to acquire them. It was hard work and the vote wasn't unanimous. But most of us love our speed humps because they've helped make the street quieter for us stodgy grown-ups and safer for the kids.
(They're not "speed bumps," by the way. Speed
bumps are slim and high, like what you find in parking lots. Speed
humps are long and low, to slow traffic on residential streets. We learned all the cool traffic pacification lingo.)
So imagine my joy when the other morning I heard John call out, "photo op!" and I ran outside to find Oscar Alvarado, Miguel Rojas and Steven Adams refreshing the paint on our beloved speed humps. It was a quick job, one-two-three.
One: they said, "Sure, you can take pictures!" and placed stencils on the street.

Two: while Mr. Alvarado held the stencil in place, Mr. Rojas sprayed the paint.

Three: while Alvarado and Rojas replaced the stencils on the truck, Mr. Adams sprinkled something on the wet paint. I figured it was something to help make the paint dry. But later, John showed me what Steven Adams had sprinkled. We found a few teeny, tiny glass beads left behind. They stick to the paint to make it glow when headlights shine on it.

We love our speed humps. Now, when I come upon them while driving in town, I know what the residents went through to get them and why. And I slow down and enjoy their quiet street.
These gentlemen were awfully nice to let me take their picture. They were efficient, too. Bonuses all around!