The Rock Island line pulls out of New Lenox in the dark, and the people aboard it left home before the streetlights had any competition. Flynn and Son works those hours — plowing driveways and lots, opening walkways, and salting so the first step out the door is a safe one. Snow in Will County often falls overnight on a west wind and gets rearranged before sunrise, which makes the clock matter as much as the blade. There is a real satisfaction in a drive that is already clear when the first headlight swings onto it. Winter here asks for somebody who is awake ahead of it.