Winter mornings in Maine Township begin in the dark, before the first inbound train slides down the Union Pacific Northwest line. All Clear Snow Removal likes to be out ahead of it, plowing driveways and clearing the walks so the path to the car is already open when the porch light comes on. Storms here arrive over flat open country to the west and drift fine and dry against garage doors all night. The work gets measured in bare pavement: a straight cut to the curb, the corners squared, nothing left to harden into a ridge by afternoon. By the time the sky goes pale above the rooftops, the block is passable and quiet again.