Fall makes way for colder days, devouring the sun in its cool indifference. November mornings and the first frost, the days burning fury fading now, sky to shades of blue and grey. The white hot air of summer gives way - reluctantly - to the grey clouds rolling in from north and west, all heavy laden with that life giving rain, hail, lightning, thunder, darkness. Under cold blue northern winds, the leaves begin to turn and fall, heaping into piles at the feet of trees and in the gutters, sidewalks, drains. The fields, burnt brown and stiff from summer air, all spring to life with brambles, tangled vines and all the little flowers soon to be frozen in the crisp night air. And the wind blows cold across the land tonight in northern Texas, and in their rooms the children dream of still too distant snowmen, and the parents guard their hearts against that fear of coughing, fever, chills, and winters deadly grasp.