March snow in northern Illinois comes down wet and gray and weighs about triple what January's did, sagging the willows along the creek and turning every driveway into a job for a machine rather than a shovel. That last storm of the Chemung winter is the one that catches people, arriving after the boots are already put away. Willow Creek Landscape, Inc plows it the same as the first one in December — drives opened end to end, walks cleared, the heavy stuff pushed back far enough that the next thaw drains toward the ditch instead of pooling at the apron. By afternoon the sun is strong enough to steam the pavement dry, and the piles start shrinking. That is the sound of the season turning, and it is worth being out in.