That last storm really was a big one. And the embankment along Easton's Pond is one of the few places to see the sculpted remains and melting process. There'll be more snow, more storms, soon, I'm guessing ... but for the moment we're "back to normal." Things have thawed. Sidewalks are walkable, Newport is in sleep mode, I'm in sleep mode — no longer having to set an alarm for 5:50 each morning to get my daughter off to school. She sets her own alarm (or she'd better) in her dorm room at college, where patio umbrellas line the sidewalk outside the dining hall, snow or not. And my son sets his own alarm for work, where he tromps off from his apartment to the subway, snow or not. Mr. Betty sets an alarm (sometimes), although for the most part, and here's the strange part, alarms aren't required after a certain age — are they?? Not only do I/we get up on our own, ideally, usually — and that's looking at the bright side of tireworn habits and occasional sleeplessness — but there's the question of why we're getting up, where we're going, or where I'm going anyway ... the immediate answer being to Broadway, another town's Broadway (does every town have a Broadway??) for a coffee date ... hardly alarming.
Afterthought about tireworn habits: Would those be ruts?? And "tireworn" isn't even a word, I now realize — I looked. The only listings that pop up for "tireworn" or "tire-worn" pertain to actual wear on tires. Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong places (not only possible, but typical). Or perhaps "tireworn" is an unwitting combination of other words — tired, worn, timeworn— all of which do appear in actual dictionaries, or virtual dictionaries, thus I'm sticking with it. I feel I've heard it, or felt it — is it just me?? "Tireworn" applies.
