On the Old West Side the streetlights still hold their halos at five in the morning, and the first sound on those narrow blocks is a blade finding pavement. A-1 Snow Removal & Lawn Care, Inc. clears the driveways and walks of Ann Arbor before the coffee shops turn their signs, so a car can back out onto clean asphalt and a mail carrier can keep both feet under her. Come May the same routes turn green and the trucks trade plow for mower — edges cut true along the old sidewalk seams, clippings carried off, the strip between walk and curb squared like a ruled line. It is unglamorous work and it is taken seriously, because a house reads as cared for from the street and everybody who passes feels it. Snow and grass are the same job here, just different weather.