Out past Cantrall the fields lie in bean stubble, and when the wind comes down from the north the snow does not fall so much as travel, filling every road cut and fenceline in long white ridges. Barr snow plowing meets it there and in town, clearing driveways and lots around Springfield and pushing back the drift that reforms an hour after you leave. The blade drops, the pile goes where it will not blow back, and a farm lane or a city drive comes up black and passable. Central Illinois winters test patience more than nerve: a clipper, a thaw, a refreeze, another clipper. What matters is that when someone has to be at work by six, the way is there.