A nor'easter announces itself around Southampton well before it lands: the ocean gets loud past Old Town Beach, the sky turns the color of an oyster shell, and by midnight the first flakes are coming in sideways. East End Snow Ice Management Inc works the whole storm — plowing lots and drives, clearing walks, spreading salt and sand, then coming back when the wind fills everything in again. Out here the temperature argues with itself, so snow becomes slush becomes a sheet of ice by three in the morning, and ice management ends up being most of the job. The measure is simple: doors open, pavement bare, nobody slips. When the sky finally clears over the water, the work has already been done.