Midnight, and the lot lamps around Owosso throw orange across three fresh inches that came in off the flats from the northwest. Turf Worx Inc. runs those hours — blade down, lanes cut wide, piles stacked where they won't swallow parking spaces or block a sightline come morning. Walks and entryways get cleared by hand, then salt goes down on the shaded strips that never see sun in January and refreeze first. Mid-Michigan winter doesn't arrive in one big event so much as it keeps returning, clipper after clipper, and the answer is showing up again each time without being asked twice. By six in the morning the pavement is dark and wet and the day can simply start, which is the entire point.