October on the older Cadillac streets is strictly a maple business: gold one week, ankle-deep the next. McConnell's lawn care service mows and trims straight through it, dropping the height for the last cuts and pulling leaves off the turf before they mat down and smother what is underneath. The rest of the year is plainer work and just as particular — weekly mowing, trimmed fence lines, edges kept honest against the concrete. Sandy ground here can go pale in a dry August, so the cut gets adjusted rather than forced. By the final pass, a lawn that is ready for snow is already a lawn that will be ready for April.