The grain elevator stands over the old rail line like a thing you steer by, and on a clear winter dawn it turns gold a good ten minutes before the streets do. Gopher Excavation Inc is usually moving by then, plowing driveways, opening lots and drive lanes, and cutting the walks clear along the front of a property. Blue hour is the right hour for it — cold enough that the snow still pushes clean, early enough that nobody has tracked it down to glaze. De-icer goes where shade and slope conspire, and the piles go where they won't refreeze across the path. Berthoud wakes to a place already open.