Goodness has it been cold. Indiana winters really bite. Sure, other states have it worse. Michigan and Minnesota come to mind, but people in those places seem to be hardened by the constant cold and snow and take it in stride. In Indiana, temps rise above freezing just often enough that when the cold and snow do return, it hits hard. It’s like having a friend that loves you one day and dogs you the next. If they always treated you poorly you’d tell ’em where to stick it, but because they treat you well sometimes you stick around.
A friend of mine relocated to Tampa during one especially cold and snowy winter in the early 90s. He said, “We’ve got room here if you want to come down and lie on the beach.” He didn’t have to offer twice; I flew down as soon as I could make arrangements at work. It felt surreal at first to spend February days reading and snoozing by the ocean as temperatures hovered around 80. I got used to it fast, though, and I was so not ready to come home when my week was up.
I got off the plane in Indianapolis on a 20-degree afternoon after an ice storm had blown through. The shuttle returned me shivering to my car, which I found coated in two inches of ice. My scraper was trapped inside my car. The sturdiest tool I had to chip away the ice was my debit card, and it took two hours of chipping to get my door open. Then I had to sit in my running car for another hour, defroster blasting at full power, until the ice on the windshield had melted enough that I could chop it off in chunks so I could see to drive home.
And so I learned that Indiana exacts its revenge on anyone who tries to shirk winter’s suffering. Be warned! Don’t let it happen to you!
