Some nights the storm quits around midnight and the clouds break, and then the moon comes down on new snow so bright you could nearly work without headlights. Victor's Landscaping is often still out at that hour, finishing a route through Joliet — plowing drives, opening walks, throwing salt where morning is going to want it. Cold air, an idling engine, a clean strip of blacktop where an hour earlier there was nothing but white. It is hard work at an unsociable time, and it is the reason a whole street gets out the door on schedule. Snow gets removed one property at a time, however late that takes.