Grew up in the Mountain West, 3,000 feet higher than Denver. Have cousins who have lived in Boulder for the past 20 years. They are pussies when it comes to snow.

THING 1: TIRE CHAINS. Get some. You will need two because they only go on the drive wheels. Learn to put them on when it isn't fucking freezing. Get the ones that are easiest to put on because if you don't know chains, you will wrap them around the axle and that's an unpleasant afternoon.

THING 2: First big snow, find yourself an empty parking lot and drive like a jackass in it. Talking donuts, powerslides, the whole nine yards. You are doing this to remind yourself, every season, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh and how much it doesn't have in common with dry conditions. You are discovering that you can't brake worth a shit, that if you turn too tight the car will just go where physics tells it to, and that the gas must be eased on and off if you want to go anywhere.

THING 3: In major metropolitan areas, the problem is never the weather, it's those other jackasses who have no idea what to do about the weather. There's nothing in your life that can't wait an hour or two for you to get home, unless the storm is coming and the jackasses are filling the freeways. If your commute is full of a million morons on good days, on bad days it's full of a million morons who have forgotten how to drive in snow (they never do Thing 2). Plan accordingly.

New tires? Well, if you've got a garage you can buy a spare set of rims and put some snow tires on them, then swap out for the season. Or you can just get that done at the shop. All-seasons are definitely better than three-seasons 'cuz that fourth season really means "traction on ice."

You're not going to get stuck in a blizzard. If it freaks you out that much, though, pick up some flares, a chemical hand-warmer or two and a half-dozen powerbars to keep in your trunk. Not that the flares will actually accomplish anything, but they make you feel prepared. And if you do need to start a fire (you won't), highway flares make that shit pretty simple.