On a January night the Ledge Light blinks out past the mouth of the Thames while snow comes sideways down Pequot Avenue. Skinny Construction is out in it, clearing driveways and lots across New London before the alarm clocks go off. Plowing, shoveling walkways, spreading salt and sand where the wind has scoured the pavement to black ice — the routine is the same every storm, and every storm is a little different. Shore snow drifts against the seawall side and blows bare on the other, so the job is as much reading the wind as pushing the blade. Dawn comes up over Groton, and the street is passable.