You know you're from central New York when...

You stay in your house most of the summer because you aren't used to the heat.

You drive 55 mph through 10 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching.

You see people wearing hunting clothes at social events.

You install security lights on your house and garage, and then leave both unlocked.

You've noticed that True Value Hardware on any Saturday is busier than toy stores at Christmas.

You define summer as three months of bad sledding.

One of your neighbors constantly has bonfires.

You carry jumper cables in your car, and your girlfriend knows how to use them.

There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at the supermarket at any given time.

You know 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, cold, and construction.

It takes you 2 hours to go to the store for one item because you have to stop and talk to everyone in town

Cows are just part of the scenery

You know that the phrase, "Goin up ta," applies to going north, south, east, or west, up or down in elevation, and pretty much any other way you can travel.

The smell of freshly spread cow manure doesn't bother you.

Its perfectly normal for your life's aspirations to be working for the county.

Getting "dressed up" means tucking your shirt into your jeans and putting on clean work boots.

Halloween costumes are always designed around a snowsuit and winter boots.

You know what cheese curd is, and love it.

You can name everyone you graduated with.

You know what 4-H is.

You said the 'F' word and your parents knew within an hour.

You ever went cow-tipping.

School gets canceled for a sports team going to State

You had a senior skip day.

Your car is always covered with mud, slosh, and salt.

You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

The town next to you is considered "trashy" or "snotty" when it is just like your town.

You have experienced frostbite and sunburn in the same week.

Getting paid minimum wage is considered a raise.

You refer to anyone with a house newer than 1980 as the "rich people."

You think driving is better in the winter because the potholes get filled in with snow and the snow banks protect you from the guardrails.

The Country Club doesn’t have a golf course.

You wear shorts when it hits 50 degrees.

You know exactly what time it needs to start snowing in order to have a snow day (3:30am).

Winter starts Halloween night.

You think that they don't have enough weather coverage on TV and radio.

You live within 10 minutes of an Ice Rink.

Weekend excitement involves a trip to RiteAid drugs.

Even ugly people enter beauty contests.

You decide to walk for exercise and 5 people pull over and ask you if you need a ride.

Your graduating class has no more than 500 kids, including the 100-200 that didn't quite make it through.

Your doors to your car freeze shut.

Your teachers call you by your older sibling's name.

The local phone book has only one yellow page.

You leave your jacket on the back of the chair in the cafe, and when you go back the next day, it's still there, on the same chair.

You don't signal turns because everyone knows where you're going anyway.

You call a wrong number and they supply you with the correct one.

You have to name six surrounding towns to explain to people where you're from.

The town population increases by one-third when the universities go on break.

Your snow blower gets stuck on the roof.

The mosquitoes in your yard have legal landing rights.

Catching lighting bugs is a way to entertain your kids for hours.

You’ve ridden your bike on the Erie Canal.

You can speak a second language: Native American. (onondoga, chittenango, oneida, Tuscarora, Seneca, Canaseraga, Canastota, Oswego, Otisco, Owasco, Cayuga, Sauquoit, etc.)

You suffer a heart attack while shoveling snow out of your driveway.

You owe more money on your snowmobile than your car.

The mayor greets you on the street by your first name.

You keep the snow tires on your truck all year because it ain't worth taking them off for only two months.

You consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 36 inches
of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by.

You're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights a year
because Saranac Lake is the coldest spot in the nation, and Syracuse gets more
snow than any other major city in the US.

Your l ocal Dairy Queen is closed from October through May.

If you get 131 inches of snow in a week and you comment that 'winter's finally
here', you might live near Oswego.

You instinctively walk like a penguin for six months out of the year

Someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance, and they don't work
there.

Your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead.

You have worn shorts and a parka on the same day.

You have had a lengthy phone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong
number.

Down South means Corning .

Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new shed.

You go out for a fish fry every Friday .

Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.

Your idea of a traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a tractor.

You measure distance in hours.

You know several people who have hit deer more than once.

You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

You know you’ve lived in Syracuse too long when…

You know the correct pronunciation of "Pompey."

You no longer need to brace your eardrums when exiting the pressurized Carrier Dome.

You can tell all the Hafner establishments apart.

Your chest bursts with pride when Syracuse's climate runs as the top story on cable TV's Weather Channel.

You know where to find parking spaces in Skaneateles.

You're surprised that people from other parts of the country know nothing about lacrosse.

Your idea of fun is to pack a picnic lunch and go watch the mosquitoes get sprayed in Cicero.

You attended a Syracuse Chiefs game at MacArthur Stadium. Bonus points if you attended a Chiefs game at Municipal Stadium.

You've shopped at Switz's novelty store in North Syracuse.

Attending the State Fair is a family tradition, and you go more than three times during the 12 days it's open.

You've shopped at the Tri-County Mall.

Half the change in your pocket is Canadian.

You can make a weekend out of going to Carousel Mall.

Erie Boulevard is the place to go on weekends.

You request the Syracuse vs. Miami Football game off from work a year in advance.

You go on a "big" camping trip to Green Lakes.

75% of your friends work at Wegmans.

You accept the fact that the Carrier Dome isn't air conditioned, despite being named after the World's Largest A/C Company.

You have a stuffed Orange in your car (Otto).

you can accurately forecast just how warm the day will be according to the intensity of the stench coming from the lake during your morning drive.

Jim Boeheim is starting to look sexy to you.

You feel like you're being subversive when you go to Hoffmann's instead of Heid's.

You know that Gate 2 at the Fairgrounds is always open.

you chuckle with glee whenever you hear that yet another truck has had its top sheared off by the rail bridge over Onondaga Parkway.

The word "iniquity" inspires images of a bejeweled hand gesturing from the edge of a grainy black-and-white television screen on Channel 5's Monster Movie Matinee.

You call the intersection of Salina and Jefferson streets "Downcity."

Your children dream of being on WIXT-Channel 9's "Storm Team."

You have the time and temperature number memorized

You're beginning to suspect that the time and temperature lady actually died years ago and her voice is now computer-generated and preserved for all eternity.

You miss Bowling for Dollars and its host, Bud Hedinger.

You remember the key to open the door of local TV's Magic Toy Shop.

You automatically give speeding cars with Canadian license plates the right of way on I-81.

You can determine how much a person's house is worth by the way he or she pronounces Skaneateles".

You can explain to visitors what salt potatoes are.

You remember Fairmount Fair. Bonus points for remembering it before it expanded at the western end; double points for remembering it before it was enclosed.

You've shopped at the Penn Can Mall. Bonus points if you remember its jingle or know that it's named Penn Can because of its location between Pennsylvania and Canada.

You know not to drive through Baldwinsville's Four Corners between 3 and 7 p.m.

You know how to decode the weather star on top of the MONY Tower.

You remember when Doug's Fish Fry had only one location.

You know the service elevator shortcut out of Hotel Syracuse's 10th-floor Grand Ballroom.