Winter in Manistee announces itself from the west: a gray band builds over Lake Michigan and comes ashore in a hurry. A-Game Tree Service & Snow Removal works the hours nobody else wants, the ones between the last squall and the first alarm clock. Blades go down on the climb out of the river valley and stay down until the drives up on the bluff are open to bare pavement. Salt goes where the ice likes to hide — the shaded turn, the low spot by the mailbox, the top step. By the time the sky lightens over the orchards inland, the way out is simply there, waiting.