I don't understand how you can live somewhere that's it's so cold you can't even be outside. Do you just stay inside all winter?
Usually there's at least some outside time - have to get into cars and whatnot. We just stick to indoor places so we can minimize how much time we spend outside.
So yeah, we don't get the nice weather sunny outdoors where we can do outdoorsy things all the time. And many people still find fun things to do outside when it's only reasonably cold, as in, dress in layers to stay warm but not really facing a frostbite threat.
Winter for us is dominated by either indoor sporting events (arenas or even something like bowling), drinking establishments, other locations that are buildings...
hmm, we seem to do everything in winter that most people continue to do even when it's summer... just, we don't do anything that's warm-weather-only and entirely outside, like swimming, frolicking and sunbathing in the park (limited frolicking when cold, polar bear club members don't count for either), amphitheater concerts, walking around town without wearing and holding onto a billion layers of clothing (we add the layers but still do that downtown).
I mean, it's not like we literally stay inside all winter.
This is just terrible because for almost everyone here, the temperatures are depressingly low, dangerously low, and most of us have never or only rarely experienced such temperatures - usually, every single night is safe during an Ohio winter. These are rare historic lows - most developed parts of Canada don't get this low THAT often. And temporarily holing up ain't so bad - sorta like a hurricane.
Worse, the roads are for shit for many of us too... so going nowhere is partly out of necessity, or not risking it.
Roads were still so icy here, it's basically illegal to be driving around without a very good reason and I do believe you can be given a citation.
Ohio has something called Snow Emergencies, which are given up to 3 levels on a mostly county-by-county basis (some smaller cities/towns/villages as well).
Level 3: "All roadways are closed to non-emergency personnel. No one should be driving during these conditions unless it is absolutely necessary to travel or a personal emergency exists. All employees should contact their employer to see if they should report to work. Those traveling on the roads may subject themselves to arrest."