Last week's warmth brought a crooked grin to Grant's face as he sketched out his plans for the coming months. But all that was on hold momentarily, as he soaked up the sunshine that drew him outdoors for the longest period of time in months.

"The gods of spring are being very good to me today," he said.

Jean O'Keefe, 44, did not have the time to bask in the sun as she herded her three children into the station wagon after a half-day of shopping in Harvard Square. Though she didn't have time to enjoy it, she heaped praise on the warm weather, crediting it with making her job as a full-time mother much easier.

"I'd love to be able to go for a walk or do yard work," O'Keefe lamented, popping the trunk and packing it full of the day's purchases. "This kind of weather makes me yearn for that extra hour of leisure."

"But in the middle of winter, being a mommy is unbelievably hard. You have to bundle up three little bodies, get them away from the snowbanks and be prepared for the whining and the complaints," she said, nodding as she recalled winter's challenges.

"But once spring comes, it is such a breeze," O'Keefe said, estimating the warmer weather frees up half an hour of her day.

The winter of '98-'99 was one of the warmer and drier winters on record, according to meteorologists, and O'Keefe considers herself lucky that the temperatures were not as cold as usual.