Three in the morning, February, twelve below — Le Ray at its most exact. Primetime Plowing is out in it: driveways and lots cleared, walkways shoveled, ice treated where the sun never reaches all winter. Snow off Lake Ontario stacks up in bands that stall over this stretch of Jefferson County for hours, so the route gets run and then run again. Amber flash, scrape of steel on gravel, banks pushed back to make room for whatever tomorrow brings. By the time the sky lightens, every drive on the list is open, and that is the entire reason for the hour.