August is hard on grass in this stretch of Illinois — weeks of heat, ground gone tight, a lawn that looks like it has quietly given up. September is when it comes back, and that turn is the most hopeful thing to work inside of all year. The lawn care that carries a yard there is unglamorous: cut at the right height, keep the edges true, clear the clippings, stay on the week. Collinsville evenings cool first on the bluff side of town, and the grass notices before people do. Same yard, six weeks on, green again — which is the whole argument for keeping at it.