Thunderheads stack over the Catskills on a July afternoon and come up the valley fast, and by six o'clock the yards along Delaware Avenue are steaming. Lawn care in Albany is mostly a conversation with weather like that: cut when the grass is dry enough to stand up to a blade, hold off when it isn't. Mowing, string trimming, edging, hedge work, mulch laid dark around the beds, leaves gathered once the maples finally let go. The reward is small and exact — a straight stripe across a front lawn, a curb line with no ragged fringe left behind. Delaware Avenue gets better one property at a time, and that is the only way it ever happens.