An Alberta clipper does not announce itself; it simply arrives overnight, dry and fast, and by three in the morning Ann Arbor is four inches short of visible pavement. Precise Plowing is out in it — driveways and lots plowed, walks and steps shoveled, salt down on the shaded turns where a wheel would otherwise spin. In the townships the cul-de-sacs get done last by the county and first by somebody like this. There is a satisfaction that only exists in winter: the black rectangle of a cleared drive under a streetlight, banks squared off, nothing left for the homeowner to do but leave. Snow is the entire business here, so the storm sets the schedule and the schedule gets kept.