The real--and simple--reason why the snow wasn't plowed at Christmas

So I'm at my barber's place today, getting my bi-monthly cut when I see the friend of my barber, in the next chair, just visiting, is a City of Kansas City, Missouri employee. (He had a label on his jacket).

So I asked what department he works for.

He says he works for the "Fleet Department."

He knew I wouldn't know what that meant--he was right--and he said "We're the people who plow the snow in winter."

Ding-ding.

Bells went off for me.

I don't quite remember what he said next but I followed with "Yeah, what was that about at Christmas? How come there was trouble with the streets."

And here it came.

The real reason, so far hidden, as far as I know, as to why the big snow we got over Christmas was such a mess and didn't get plowed well or properly.

You'd have thought it was complicated.

He said it was, as a matter of fact, because a bunch of people were off for Christmas. He said they were still trying to keep it quiet. (So much for that, huh?).

Well, yeah.

Of course.

But maybe that should have been cancelled, once a big snow was forecast to come in???

Sometimes the most obvious answer is also the right and true one.

Message to City Hall: wake up and smell the coffee. Do what we hire y'all to do, especially if it's something important like plowing the streets when it snows.