Five in the morning along 104th, and the lots are empty in the way they only ever are for one hour a day — long enough to get a plow all the way around the perimeter, open the fire lane, clear the handicapped spaces and salt the walk in front of the doors before the first car turns in. United Property Maintenance keeps that same loop turning all year. Come June the islands get mowed, the strip along the curb gets trimmed, the edges get cut back to the concrete and the trash from the wind gets picked up. It is grounds care for the places people pull into without thinking about it — which is the point, because you only notice this work when it hasn't been done. Homes and commercial properties across Thornton, tended in every month of the calendar.