a letter to Sara (not to any non-Saras)

Dear Sara,
    The weather here in Texas finally resembles somewhat what some Southern persons might consider winter. For an entire night over the weekend the temperature was below 32 degrees Fahrenheit!  That’s below freezing!  The cold snap persisted for what can only be described as "a couple of days" and come tomorrow the daytime highs should be back in the 70’s. Why, back when I was young, it would sometimes freeze for several nights in a row!  That’s when we knew winter had finally come.
    As children, my cousins and I would immediately run outside during the first freeze of the year and peel wafers of ice off the leaves to eat.  Then we would meander through the woods behind the house and take in the glorious monotone of a gray Texas winter.  We had to watch out though!  The frozen rocks below our feet were perilously slick, and as the sun hit the trees the gosh darn ice would loosen up enough to snap off and come crashing down around our ears if we weren’t careful!
    Now, as the years in my twenties comes to a middle, the winters of yesteryear are but a distant dream… like looking across to the other side of a valley deep with fog.  What they call "global warming" is proving to be as real as my grandpappy’s secret stash of whiskey, and just as much of a problem, too.  Call me old fashioned, but I’m of the mind set that we shouldn’t go fixing what ain’t broke.  In this case we seem to be breaking it more and more every day.  We ought to go back to simpler time, when proliferation of fossil fuels was only in the imaginations of those who would bring about such changes.  Then maybe we could go back to the way things were;Maybe Texas will see winter again.  I’ll be here waiting for it.
 
Your loving friend,
    Sean Bailey Ellison
 
P.S.- I hope you enjoyed my deliciously quaint letter.  It is as heartfelt as it is true.