February in the Saginaw Valley is mostly darkness and wind, and the difference between a hard morning and an ordinary one is whether the pavement got cleared while everyone slept. Ladouce Quality Maintenance takes the winter side of things: plowing drives and lots, clearing walks and entrances, and spreading salt where ice sets up. Storms off the bay arrive in waves rather than one long fall, so the work is counted in returns as much as in inches. The good moment comes near the end of a run — headlights on wet black asphalt, snow banked neatly at the far edge of the lot, everything squared before first light. Somebody reaches their car without thinking twice, and that is the whole idea.