An ice storm is the one that gets you here — no drama at all, just a glaze on Golf Road and every sidewalk in the village turned treacherous by morning. Nick's Specialties handles the cold half of the Schaumburg year: plowing drives and lots, opening walks down to the concrete, salting so the afternoon melt doesn't lock up again at dusk. Winter runs long in this part of Illinois and it comes in shapes — powder one week, wet heavy inches the next, glaze after that. Each shape wants a different tool and a different hour of the night. The measure of the work is simple: can you get out, and can you get back in.