The first real snow of the year usually shows up over Ray Township at night, and by morning the mile roads are two dark lines drawn through a white township. Unique Clips, LLC is out ahead of that — driveways plowed from the garage door to the road, walkways and entries cleared, salt where the apron ices over and the mail carrier has to step. Out here a driveway can run three hundred feet, so getting it open is the difference between going to work and not. The blade finds the same gravel line storm after storm, and the piles go where they will not blow back. It is cold, plain, necessary work, and there is real pride in a drive that is open before anybody needs it.