Lake Erie writes the winter here, and it writes with a hard edge: a band sets up off the water and one street takes eight inches while the next street over stays dry. Funk Outdoor Enterprises llc works inside that line — plowing driveways and lots, clearing walks and steps, salting the ice that follows a thaw. Three in the morning along Southwestern Boulevard is a strange, lit-up quiet, snow coming sideways through the headlights and nothing else moving. By the time the Southtowns wake up the pavement is black and open, and that is the entire point of the night. Orchard Park, Hamburg, Blasdell and West Seneca all sit under the same bands.