I was born and raised a southern boy.
I never say anything approaching snow or ice all through my youth and teenage years.
When you only see snow on TV, it looks like a lot of fun. Now that I have moved up north I see that the reality of snow involves a lot more work. Making a snowman, or having a snowball fight, is always a lot of fun. What isn’t fun is shoveling the driveway so you can move the car, or leaving all the faucets dripping so that the water pipes don’t freeze and burst. It surely has been an adjustment, but thankfully I have a great heating system so at least that isn’t one of my worries. I am approaching the end of my first full winter up north, and I am deeply thankful for the furnace in the basement. I was a bit worried at first, because this was the oldest furnace I had ever seen in my life. Coming from the south I wasn’t used to having a basement, nor had I encountered such a large, heavy furnace. This furnace is literally older than I am, and yet it still runs amazingly well. The realtor told me that the furnace was so big it had been installed during the initial construction of the house! That means they installed the heating system, and then built the house over the top of it. This furnace is so big it can’t ever be moved without causing major damage to the house, so I hope it keeps working for a long time.