The most beautiful place you could never want to live...

Last week, I traveled to Alaska on TDY (Temporary Duty). I saw the same type of patients as I do at home.

Four times a year they send people from our department, because technically Alaska is under Madigan's medical jurisdiction. As you can see from the pictures I took from the plane, Alaska is one of the prettiest places you could ever hope to visit.

Living there, though...
One women who works at the hospital where I was said that in winter you have to drive in snowpants and gloves and make sure you always have food and heating supplies in the car because if your car stalls you'll get frostbite within 10-15 minutes and it might be twice that long before another car comes along.

Now, I know I'm more intolerant to cold than 99% of the population, but Anchorage, temperature wise, was in the low 50's during the day in the middle of August. It dropped down to the low 40's/high 30's at night. I got to the inn on base and my room was seriously freezing. I turned up the thermostat and crawled under the two cardboard-thin covers. After a couple hours of not warming up, I went to the front desk to tell them something was wrong with my thermostat. They told me, "Oh, we turn off the heat in the summer."

What?!???!!?

I asked for blankets and they looked at me like I was a candidate for a double lobotomy and a room with padded wallpaper. I finally got some and at least I was warm as long as I stayed in bed. They didn't even have a portable heater in the room! (Though they kindly provided a fan in case I got too warm.)

I guess when you have to let your mail thaw after you get it or it'll break when you try to open it in the middle of winter, 40 degrees on the positive side of zero looks like the tropics.