Barrow, Alaska

I have this weird little game I play with myself.

My, you do have a filthy mind. Pry your brain out of the gutter for a moment and pay attention, please.

On an idle night at any time of the year, I'll surf over to The Weather Channel online and plug in Barrow, Alaska, to see what the temperature is there. Barrow is the northernmost town in Alaska. It's basically a year-round ice cube.

In the dead of winter, I do this to shock myself. As in, "I cannot believe there is a place on earth where it's 50 degrees below zero. Are the polar bears freezing their balls off?"

Then in July, I do it to shock myself again. It's 150 degrees wherever I am, but it's 45 in Barrow.

Tonight it's 33 and cloudy. Tomorrow it might get to 44.

This evening I surfed onto the monthly averages for Barrow. July's average high is 47. The highest temperature ever recorded was 79 degrees. It was 1993.

4,500 people live in Barrow.

I would swiftly go insane if I lived in Barrow.