Two funny things I saw downtown today

When you live in the downtown area, you tend to see funny things and things that prompt questions. I was walking my dog, as I often do early in the morning, and there's this big roar coming down the street. It was not one, but two, streetsweepers, one following the other. Then behind them is a big dump truck, just driving real slow behind them. Keep in mind it was like freezing out at the time. It was like around 6:30 or so. Now I'm all for clean streets, but can someone convince me that this isn't a little of overkill? I'm really not sure what the dump truck was for. Anyway, it made for a funny little taxpayer-financed parade in this impoverished city.
The other sad but funny thing I saw was a city pickup truck removing the corn stalks and scarecrows that dressed up downtown lampposts. The little scarecrows looked like a bunch of bodies being hauled away from a death camp. They were nice decorations but probably won't be back given the way some of them were savaged by vandals during their brief life. We should put a reward on the heads of the vandals and then, next year, lash them to the posts for a few months.