The first real flakes tend to arrive around Thanksgiving week, and Wheeling goes quiet under them — the fairways at Chevy Chase turn white and featureless, and the streetlights all grow halos. Snow Boss opens its season right there, plows mounted and salt loaded, one eye on the sky to the northwest. Driveways get taken down to the pavement, walks cut clean, ice control laid where shade holds past noon and refreezes what the afternoon melted. The winter that follows will hand over clippers, thaws, refreezes and a couple of storms people will still be talking about in June. Every one of them gets the same answer: out early, and back again if it keeps falling.