Midnight on Dirksen Parkway, and the lots are empty enough to watch the snow come in under the sodium lights, fine and steady, filling the stripes. Blackhawk Services runs the night shift of a Springfield winter, plowing lots and drives, clearing walks, and spreading salt ahead of the ice that follows a Sangamon County storm as surely as the storm itself. There is a rhythm to it: windrow, stack, scrape, salt, then back around to check the entrances one more time. By the time the first cars turn in off the parkway, the asphalt is dark, the curbs are square, and nobody has to think about their footing. Quiet hours, plain work, and a town that opens on time.