Winter rarely announces itself politely here; it shows up as a gray line off the flat bottomland west of town, and then all at once the plows are needed. Accurate Outdoor Solutions keeps the small hours in Edwardsville, when the signals on Route 157 blink yellow and the only sound is a blade scraping down to pavement. Driveways get opened before the first alarm clocks ring, walks get taken to the concrete, and salt goes down where the afternoon melt will refreeze by four. There is satisfaction in the black stripe of a cleared lot at daybreak with the bank pushed neatly into the far corner. Come morning nobody has to think about the storm at all, which is exactly the point.