@JilltheTooth beat me to it—We “invented” fire, and learned how to make warm clothes and coats from animal skins, and that changed everything. It allowed us to move into different parts of the world where we couldn’t survive otherwise.
I’m guessing that in places like Florida and Hawaii, people don’t even really notice the change…(do they?) But in places where it’s cold during the winter, we do go into a less active stage, for the most part. Every spring, when everything starts waking up, I start waking up and I’m amazed, every time, at the feeling that I just came out of a cold, dark, confined world. It’s a stretching and awakening, every year.