The first real storm usually turns up in early December, sometime in the afternoon, and the whole valley shifts gears at once. Empire Construction and Landscaping is out ahead of it — lots and driveways plowed on a route, walks opened to the doors, salt down before the slush skins over at dark. Second passes come when the wind rebuilds the banks along the open side of a property. Piles get set where they will melt away from the pavement rather than across it in the March thaw. From Schenectady out toward Glenville, a night's work is measured by how ordinary the following morning looks.