On Middleton's western edge the house lots give way to the oak and pitch pine of Harold Parker State Forest, and a storm out there makes a sound like surf running through the branches. Huston Tree & Landscape Services works the middle of those nights, headlights packed full of snow, pushing driveways open one after another so the morning has somewhere to go. Wooded lots drift strangely — eight inches at the road, three feet where the wind curls around a stand of trees — and knowing which is which is most of the job. Plowing, shoveling the path to the door, sand and salt on the shaded stretches where ice will sit all week regardless of sun. By the time the sky turns that flat winter blue, the trucks are gone and the street looks like nothing ever happened.