When a storm comes up the Hudson Valley, Milton takes it sideways — wet snow off the river, then a hard freeze behind it that turns every driveway into a problem. Empire Landscaping and Snow Plowing, Inc. runs those nights, plowing drives and clearing walks so the way out to 9W is passable before anyone has to be anywhere. There is a specific pride in the four a.m. pass: headlights, blade down, black pavement left behind. The rest of the year those same driveways sit at the top of mowed lawns, trimmed and edged on a schedule that runs from the spring flush to the last cut of fall.