By mid-July the thunderheads pile up over the mesas east of town and drag their gray curtains across the plain, and everything green in Guadalupe County waits on them. Perez General Jobs Landscaping works around those afternoons — mowing in the morning, shaping hedges and shrubs once the ground has dried, hauling the season's cuttings and dead brush off the lot. Cholla and chamisa need nothing from anyone; a lawn needs a mower and somebody with a reason to care about a straight line. Weeds come out of the beds before they get the chance to seed. Come evening, when the light goes long and orange across the grass, the difference between a yard that was tended and one that was not is visible from the road.