A clipper drops down out of the northwest with no ceremony — clear at midnight, four inches on the ground by three. That is the hour Nick & Lou's Snow Removal keeps, headlights swinging into driveways off Armour Road while the village is still dark and unhurried. Plow the drive, cut back the ridge the county truck left at the apron, open the walk to the porch, throw salt where tires will otherwise spin. Nobody watches the work happen; they see a black driveway and a car that backs out on time toward Bradley or Kankakee. There is a real satisfaction in a whole street of them, finished before the first kitchen light comes on.