Two in the morning at the Palmer end of the turnpike, the storm coming east in long grey sheets, and there are driveways out there that have to be open by six. Palmer Tree Services Inc. runs the plow through it: drives cut to pavement, lots pushed back wide enough to turn a truck in, walks and steps cleared by hand so the first person out the door has footing. Sand and salt go down wherever a slope would rather not cooperate. They come back between bands, because a driveway plowed once in a nine-hour storm is a driveway plowed for nothing. By the time the sky clears over the hills east of town, the ground is already done — in Palmer Town, Three Rivers, Monson, Ware and Brimfield.