February in Maine Township is a game of melt and refreeze: a bright low sun softens everything by two in the afternoon, and by nine at night the same slush is glass. Emerald Landscape Contractor plows and clears with that trick in mind, taking the snow off while it will still move and going down to the pavement so the night has nothing to work with. Along Ballard Road the wind pushes drifts back over a driveway an hour after it has been opened, and the answer is simply to return. A cleared drive should look cleared, squared at the apron, cut to the curb line, walks shoveled full width and not a shovel's worth narrower. It is a small thing, and it is the difference between an easy morning and a careful one.