Palatine wakes early. Long before the first inbound train pulls out, headlights are already stringing along the streets, and any lot still sitting under four inches becomes everyone's problem at once. Absolute Tree Solutions Inc takes the snow side of those hours, plowing lots, opening drives and cutting walkways down to bare concrete while the big oaks over toward Deer Grove stand loaded and white and perfectly still. A parking lot that fills normally at seven o'clock — nobody skidding, nobody stuck, the curb lines visible again — is what all that dark-hour work is for. A suburb this busy runs on mornings like that, and somebody has to be out at four to make one happen.