November comes sideways in Amherst — the first flakes crossing Main Street at a slant while Ellicott Creek still runs open and dark. Meta Snow Plowing & Landscaping treats that as the starting gun. Plowing driveways, clearing walks and steps, salting where meltwater refreezes overnight, and going back out through the long storms that do not know when to stop. There is a plain pleasure in arriving before anyone is awake and leaving nothing behind but bare blacktop and one straight bank of snow. Winter here is long; the point is that nobody has to plan their day around it.