East of the city the neighborhoods run out toward open prairie, where the wind has nothing to slow it and the sky takes up most of the view. Thomas Lawn Care works those streets all year, mowing and edging while the grass grows, plowing and shoveling once it stops. Summer here means keeping a lawn respectable under hard sun and hot afternoons; winter means getting a drive open before the school bus comes down the block. The same yards, the same houses, the two ends of one calendar. There is a plain pleasure in driving past in December and knowing which walks you cleared in the dark.