At low tide the Joppa Flats go wide and silver, and the wind that crosses them runs straight up into Newburyport's side streets. Arias Landscape works the hours when that wind is loudest — the small dark hours after a storm has quit, when nobody is awake to see plow lights swing across a driveway. There is a real satisfaction in a clean sweep of pavement at first grey light, the banks cut square, the walk down to the door open the whole way. Snow here comes in wet off the water and sets heavy, so it gets moved while it is still movable. By the time the gulls are up over the Merrimack, the drives are done and the day can start on its own terms.