By two o'clock in July the sun over Vista Center is flat and enormous, cicadas going hard in the scrub oak, heat shimmering off the shoulder of the road. Bear Landscaping is out in the middle of it — mowing, running the string trimmer down fence lines, cutting the edge where lawn meets driveway — because summer grass will not wait for better weather. Sandy ground gives up its moisture fast, so mowing height in August does half the work all by itself. Stripes laid straight across a front yard are a kind of signature you can read from the mailbox. Hot hours, and a result worth stepping back to look at.