An unexpected benefit of living in a small town: the streets get plowed much faster. Since the snow began falling last Thursday — and if I had been smarter about it I would have taken pictures like a good blogger — the streets of Shawville have been plowed twice. So have the sidewalks. Even the laneway beside our building has been sanded. Compared with the city, where residential streets might go weeks without plowing as scarce municipal resources are spent on arterial roads, this is a pleasant surprise. I guess when you have one snowplow, you use it.