Don’t ever move to a lake effect snow area… I miss those nights when multiple feet fell on us in upstate NY and the world was completely transformed. Outside sounds like an anechoic chamber from all the fat snowflakes absorbing all the sound; the crunch underfoot being the only thing you hear. Shoveling out the driveway to go rip e-brakes in the snow covered parking lots. Winter without snow is a half assed experience.
Here's a lake effect snowfall map for the US. Indiana does get some, but for reference, I'm talking about the red (96-150 in / 244-381 cm) and deep red areas of upstate NY. It's a whole different kind of snow when that stuff starts falling hard.
Scenes that look like this are peak winter IMO. It's an alien landscape. Everything is so clean and quiet.
Thankfully, we have a weird old neighbor who has a riding mower that's also a snow plow and he likes to ride on it, so he always does our yard because it's fun for him. He also takes any big branches that fall in our yard (the house was built without disturbing the gigantic old oak trees that surround it) because, in his words, "I like to burn things." Thankfully, he appears to keep that restricted to an oil drum in his yard.
I mean... If I could afford a riding lawnmower that would be me. I want to at some point find a broken washer to rip the drum out of. They make good fire pits for really big fires.
It's worse in the southeast. If we get snow, it ends up partially melting and refreezing into ice which then shuts everything down. Then we have to live through the "you don't know how to drive in snow" when the snow is now a slick sheet that no plow can remove. The more we can miss out on that, the better.
I still think groening lied. I look at shelbyville in indiana, all the nuke plants in illinois, and how capital city seems so much like saint louis. And how so gosh darn midwest it feels. I swear its springfield illinois
I had an acquaintance out here in California who eventually moved back to the Midwest. He wasn't happy that he couldn't get a good hot dog out here, which I suppose is kinda true.