The clippers come down out of Canada dry and mean, and by three in the morning a Joliet street can be nothing but a blue-white blank with mailboxes sticking out of it. Nellis Landscaping is out in that hour, headlights on falling snow, cutting the first pass down a driveway so somebody can leave for work without a shovel in their hands. Plow it, widen it, square the corners, clear the walk to the door, put down salt where the ice would otherwise set up by dawn. There is a particular quiet after the blade stops: engine idling, snow still coming, one drive done and the next one waiting two blocks over. Snow removal in Will County is mostly that, showing up before the day does.