Inbox: Back from the abysmal south

From: Henri Haupenstaat
To: Brook Haupenstaat; Chelsea Haupenstaat
Subject: Back from the abysmal south

Hey girls,

Is it almost September already? I’m sure sorry I didn’t get to see the two of you this summer. But to be honest, I’m more sorry that summer’s over so soon. I’m frozen to the bone and may have to spend a few weeks somewhere tropical just to thaw out.

Like I said before, even if we only went a few miles inland, Antarctica in the winter is absurd. Sure, less chance of the ice shelf shifting, but you have no idea how cold it is. Your MN winters, can’t even compare. Most of us wore the same long underwear for much of the six weeks because even in our “heated” shelter we couldn’t bear to strip fully, let alone shower.

All said and done though, the trip was successful. (According, at least, to the same questionable scientists and grad students who thought Antarctica in winter was a good idea.) They found a high concentration of glowstone—even more than in the Andes quarry, and some of the shards they collected were bigger and in better condition than the pieces out for public display at the mythical heroes exhibit at the British Museum. They’ll be issuing a formal press release in the next couple of days—with accompanying photographs provided by yours truly.

All in all, I would characterize the trip as being a mix of hard work, excruciating boredom and more cold and dark than a person should ever have to put up with. But here’s one interesting fact. The scientist types drilled about 20 meters into the ice and found that the glowstone seemed to get more concentrated the lower they went. They were going to go deeper the next day to see if this trend continued, but then in the morning they decided not to do any more drilling at all. I was indifferent—I already had images of the scientists handling the drill, so going deeper made no difference to my role—but it still seemed very odd that they were all practically singing the night before and then couldn’t care less come morning.

And they say we artistic types are hard to understand.

I’m just glad this jaunt to the frozen wastes is over. I’ll pass on the links to any articles they write up about the expedition.

Yours ever,
Dad


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