'Balmy' Weather Warms the Heart on Valentine's Day

Six months ago, temps in the 40s gave us the shivers. 

Come Valentine’s Day, the 40s felt like the fresh breath of spring. 

Drifts shrank down to piles as we got glimpses of ground that just days ago was lost in a deep sea of snow. My mailbox has popped back up from the snow bank and, from the driveway, I picked up a two-week-old Sunday paper, now soggy old news buried by the . 

Folks all around town ventured out of their winter lairs to breathe in air that didn’t ice the lungs. Tots ignored melting snow mounds lingering around playground equipment at Eaton Preserve Park on 135th Street late Monday afternoon to make the most of that extra hour of daylight we’ve earned back over the last frigid weeks.

One young Plainfield woman treated her little dog Snoopy to a Valentine’s Day stroll along the banks of the DuPage River, where they saw a half-dozen swans and flocks of ducks.  

Her name? 

Julia Valentine, of course.