The first real snow of December usually comes in sideways, riding the wind that funnels straight down the Fox River valley and finds every driveway pointed the wrong way. Elite Snow Solutions is staged before it starts: plows mounted, salt loaded, the route in order from the properties that need clearing first. Driveways and lots get opened, walks get cut, and ice control goes down while there is still time to keep the pack from bonding to the pavement. Storm nights are long and dark and mostly unseen by the people they are for. The morning look on somebody's face when the drive is already clear is the entire payoff, in Algonquin and across the river towns.