East Hartford has always been a town that gets up in the dark, and in winter the first sound on the street is a blade finding pavement. Ty's Yard Work LLC belongs to that hour — clearing driveways and lots, shoveling walks and steps, spreading salt and sand so nobody goes down on the way to the car. Storms come up the valley and stall over these flats, which means a route often gets run twice before the sun is properly up. Snow banked square at the curb, a path cut to the door, tire tracks that stop at clean asphalt — that is the whole picture. Then the sky turns pale over the field to the east and the day gets underway.