Winter afternoons quit early in Lake County. By half past four the sky west of Waukegan is burning orange over flat open ground, the streetlights are on, and if a storm is coming it will arrive somewhere in the middle of the night. Sunset Snow Removal plans around that hour — blades checked at dusk, salt loaded, then out through the small hours plowing driveways and lots, cutting walkways clear, treating the ice that forms while the city sleeps. Morning is the reward: pavement showing dark and dry, a clean line where the plow finished, somebody backing out without a second thought. Making a hard night look like it never happened is a decent way to spend a winter.