I was on my back deck. Had just finished smoking a cigarette. It was somewhat cloudy/frosty. I saw pinpoints (3or4) of light hitting the tree line in the lot on the north side of my house. As I looked more intently, I saw a bright ball (well defined circle) of light, high in the sky, through the tree tops. It moved West to East at extremely high speed, visible for less than approx. 2 seconds. in a straight line. As I said. It was hazy/cloudy. I presume I saw the ball of light when it passed between clouds. It just appeared, then disappeared. Also the " pinpoint" flashes on the trees may have been some kind of reflection? The entire event lasted less than 10 seconds. I live within 1 mile of the Joliet Il. airport, and this area is a landing flight path for Midway airport. In 38 years, I've seen planes at all altitudes, landing lights from the sides and front, etc. I have good "feel" for airspeed of planes from the vantage point of my deck. And I've seen shooting stars. Whatever this was, it moved at an incredibly high rate of speed, and may only be the brightest shooting star I've ever seen, this low in the sky. I wonder if there were any planes in a landing pattern at the time. It would have been easily visible for them.