Having seen me walking around during the snowstorms in gaiters, snow pants, with snowshoe pole, etc., a woman on the next block said I must ski and be from New England or out west.

She was getting a kick sizing up the pedestrians and their degree of preparedness.

I was an admirer of the improvisation of some resourceful peops, including these two who were canvassing the neighborhood for snow shoveling jobs. They devised these gaiters:

We're actually factoring the snowfall (we still have 20+ inches) in flood plans. I'm watching the weather closely every day...if we have even a moderate rainfall that melts off this snow, we're going to have a LOT of water flow...but fortunately the river needs about 1" of rain to get a 1' rise - until it gets about 3' below flood stage, and then we need about 1.5" of rain to get each additional foot. It's because of the topography - it's like a wide-rim champagne glass - more volume at the top than the bottom.
But yeah, I'm thinking about it.