Winter comes into Joliet across open prairie, with nothing between the fields west of town and a driveway to slow it down. Wilson Landscape Inc works the hours that belong to no one — the blue-black stretch after midnight, when the limestone bluffs above the Des Plaines go quiet and the lift bridges sit still over black water. A blade drops, a lot opens up lane by lane, and salt goes down along the walks where ice sets hardest at the curb. By the time the first cars roll toward the Ruby Street bridge, the pavement is dark and honest again, its edges squared to the grass line. There is a real pleasure in coming back at daylight and finding the work still holding.