Champaign County lies flat as a table, and Rantoul sits on it in a neat grid where every road eventually meets a section line and keeps going. Under that big unobstructed sky the grass grows hard all summer, and Doug'll Do It keeps up with it: weekly mowing, edging along the walks and drives, string trimming the fence lines and foundations, then a blow-down so the clippings stay out of the street. Spring and fall cleanups bookend the year. There is a satisfaction particular to flat ground — the stripes run true for a hundred feet without a wobble, and you can read them from the corner. Come evening the whole block goes gold and the cut-grass smell hangs on until dark.