Thread Lake goes over to ice early and holds it late, and the neighborhoods above it feel the full length of that season. Michigan Melt handles the winter side of things there — plowing driveways, opening walkways, shoveling steps down to the concrete. A Flint winter has a rhythm you can almost set a watch by: a storm, a bright bitter day, another storm behind it. Reaching a house before it is desperately needed is most of the job. The rest is doing it thoroughly enough that the sun can finish the work.