The season's first snow usually lands on grass that is still green — October in Berthoud, cottonwoods half turned, the ground too warm to hold much of anything. Sommersweet Sprinkler and Landscape starts its snow rounds right there, plowing driveways and lots, clearing the walks and doorways, treating shaded slabs where an early freeze catches people off guard. Those first storms are rehearsal for the ones that mean it. By January the routes run themselves and the blade knows every apron and gate on them. There is real pleasure in handing a household back its driveway before the day has started.