February in Laporte is a bargain struck between two winds. One comes cold off the plains and leaves eight inches behind it; the other comes roaring down out of the hills a day later, warm and dry, and takes most of it back. Kincaid Tree Surgery Co works the narrow gap in between, plowing and shoveling driveways and clearing walkways, steps and parking areas before the melt-and-refreeze can turn a clean path into a sheet of glass. Timing is the craft here — go too late and you're chipping ice instead of moving snow. The good outcome is quiet and completely unremarkable: everyone gets where they're going, and nobody spares the pavement a thought.