A nor'easter announces itself in Norwood around three in the morning — plow lights sweeping Washington Street, wind stacking drifts against every garage door in town. This is shoveling work, plain and specific: driveways cleared, walkways cut down to the pavement, steps and landings opened, the mailbox and the car dug back out. It is cold, unglamorous and enormously welcome at six a.m., when the door swings open onto a path that is already there. Between storms the walks are kept clear and the ice gets treated so a thaw does not turn the front steps into a skating rink. Winter here is long, and nobody should have to face it holding their own shovel.