Winter in north-central Massachusetts arrives sideways — a squall off the high ground west of the city and Route 2 goes white between Leominster and Westminster in twenty minutes flat. R & S Hauling and Excavating Inc. works that weather, pushing back drifts and hauling off the piles that stack in the corner of a lot until there is nowhere left to put them. The job gets measured in pavement: black where it was white, the curb line visible again, a turnaround wide enough for a delivery truck at seven in the morning. Storms here come in threes and fours, one riding the last one's tail, and the plan already accounts for the fourth. Leominster stays open because somebody was out at four.