Today is dreary but above freezing. It may even reach 40˚. A bit of snow gave us, Henry, Jack and me, pause earlier when it slipped off the roof to the deck. The noise of the slipping caught our attention then the snow slammed the deck.

The front steps are wet from melted ice. I’ll throw more of the deicer on them a bit later to make sure they don’t refreeze. I have no reason to go out today.

On television detectives check trash bins near crimes for whatever they can find. Why is it that every dumpster has neatly closed trash bags, maybe some folded cardboard boxes and a tidy dead body? My kitchen trash basket is far messier. The last thing I would want to do is go through that basket, even with gloves and a mask.

When I was a kid, St. Valentine’s Day was a big day. Before the event, I had to bring a shoebox to school. That week before, during art, we each decorated our boxes with red construction paper and added sweet words written in crayon. My mother and I would walk uptown to Woolworth’s so I could pick my valentines. There were boxes of choices, all two dimensional. The sayings on the front were silly, but not to me back then.

“It’s plane to see you’re the valentine for me,” has a plane on the front piloted by a dog. Then we have the pig, “Rooting,” for me to be his Valentine. The worst I found made me groan. It has two peas in a pod on the front. The message was “Peas be my ponder.” I wonder if, back then, I understood the puns, the plays on words. I doubt it.

The night before Valentine’s Day, I sat at the kitchen table and wrote out my valentines. When I was young, my name on the back was slanted downward because I usually ran out of room. I’d put my classmates’ names on the front envelopes.

Paying attention in school was difficult on Valentine’s Day. Our boxes were on the desks just waiting to be filled. Finally, after lunch, we’d clear our desks of school work and put our decorated boxes right in the middle. Row after row took turns walking around putting Valentine’s in boxes. When we were all finished, the party started. My classmates and I had brought goodies to share. Again, row by row, we’d choose our treats then sit down and open our valentines. It was the best day.