Six-year-old Kael Kysar and his mother Karen Kysar were pictures in contrast Friday in the wake of the biggest and messiest storm thus far this season.

While Karen hoisted shovelfuls of heavy, ice-laden snow out of her driveway in Rutland, Kael was gleefully driving his sled head-on into the drift she was making.

"Hey Kael, have you had any problems with the snow?" his mother jokingly asked.

"None," Kael said, taking the question seriously. "There's nothing wrong with it. I like the snow."

While the opinion of Kael, and that of every other 6-year-old who had the day off from school, may have leaned in favor of the frosty landscape, not everyone cared for the ice and the trouble it made.

"Do you like my refrigerator?" said Charlene Palfrey, pointing to a snow bank crammed with milk, eggs and other foodstuffs she lifted out of her refrigerator after a downed tree cut off power to her Grove Street home in Rutland.

Palfrey's refrigerator wasn't the only thing not working. With the power out, the pellet stove that heats the home she shares with her boyfriend and his two children was also offline.

"They told us we might not have power back until Monday," Palfrey said.

While Palfrey and many other Vermonters waited for the power to be restored, thousands of other Vermonters toiled either cleaning up the mess or trying to work around it.

At the Aubuchon Hardware in downtown Rutland, store manager Nomi Bierly said it was an "S" day at the store.

"That's sleds, salt, shovels and scrapers," she said.

Bierly could have added "G" to the letter lineup as well since generators have been in short supply since storm damage in states to the south has left retailers in the north in short supply, she said.

Snow blowers didn't make the list because the mix of snow and ice on the ground was too heavy for snow blowers to handle.

"This is heart-attack snow because it's so heavy and the only way to get rid of it is with a shovel," she said.

Bryan McMahon of Bomoseen said he and several other employees at Noonan Transportation Co. in West Rutland cleared the snow in their parking lot in a less back-breaking fashion — they plowed it.

But the mechanic said the storm had put almost every truck on the road behind schedule and played havoc with some of the trucks, which he said are most apt to break down during the first big storm of the season.

"We've been lucky so far today, but this is usually when something breaks," McMahon said.

Even the postman's creed to deliver the mail no matter the weather got put to the test Friday.

"I had a few close calls where I almost fell down," said U.S. postal carrier Rupert Petty of Pittsford. "The hardest part is just trying to walk through it, especially when you're carrying mail in your hands."

Contact Brent Curtis at brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com.