Bob was a pot-licking, bowl-scraping, bone-sucking bear of a man. 

I dreamed my big dreams while I swept up after the rich.

Her New Year's resolution was to try to short circuit everyone else's. 

These dizzy heights of success were too much for Hilda who yearned to return to the mundane life she once knew.

They tried to sun themselves in the milky, short-lived winter light.

The end of vacation was especially hard as they headed north through what had been a light, warm rain into a blizzard.

Ike spent dawn with Dawn and twilight with Twilla but was alone by noon the next day.