The Fringe of Fringe

Most of my blogs of late have been, well, let's face it, downers. So for something slightly more upbeat, I think I will muse about last night's (Jan. 28th) episode of Fringe. This Fox network show is great. I have watched it from the beginning. I like all of the main characters. Dr. Walter Bishop is one of my favorite tv characters of all time. If you aren't watching the show give it a try. Dr. Bishop is a genius who even with part of his brain gone (long story for another day) be is still way beyond any other scientist poking about on the tube. He'd even beat Mr. Spock in an IQ test (that is also another story for another day, Leonard Nimoy fans, I'm talking to you). But in last night's episode Dr. Bishop got to give us a glimpse (and it was just a glimpse) of his past. It seems our Dr. Bishop's father was also a genius. He worked for the Nazi's and was called Bishoff. But Walter says his father was really sending his findings to the Americans via German novels which he used to hide his notes. Walter thinks he still owns the novels but finds that while he was in the mental hosptial (yes, you got it ... another day) his son, Peter, sold the grandfather's books. Peter says he needed the money but FBI Agent Olivia Dunham suspects and gets Peter to admit he really sold the books because he was mad at his father. Now Walter is a nice dotty genius now days but the few glimpses we have had into his past show that that has not always been the case. Walter could be driven and obsessed with his work. We do know something which Peter does not, that his father once risked the world to save his (Peter's life) and he really did not succeed. Well, not entirely. :) Looks like another story for another day. Any way on last nights episode some one has figured out how to kill certain people in a room full of people with a poison gas. Walter remembers that his father was working on something like this but did not have enough knowledge of DNA at that time (1930 and 40s) to be able to fully use the knowledge. Now someone is using his father's findings and is killing people. The first death's are at a wedding. One family is targeted. The fact that the family is Jewish makes it seem more cold blooded. Walter, Peter and Olivia do find the killer but secrets are left untold. Like how did a hundred something year old Nazi end up in US in 2010 looking like a thirty-some year old. Oh those Nazi's and their secrets. Can't wait for next week.

Welcome 2010

2009 is gone but not forgotten. It ended on a dark note for my family. My dear brother-in-law died on December 22. He had been ill for only a few weeks. We knew he had serious health problems but no one thought the end would come so soon. I saw him the day he died. In fact we talked quite a lot that morning. He seemed to be remembering things from his past and the memories were not always pleasant. He told me about a lady he had known who had been ill for a very long time. He said people said she was so brave for fighting so hard. He said he had just felt sorry for her. I think Louis was telling me that we wasn't going to fight his cancer.
When Louis found out about the cancer his first thought was for his wife (my sister) Shirley. He and Shirley met when he was home on leave from the Navy. He was nineteen and she was eighteen. The fell deeply in love and decided to marry. I remember my mother crying and begging Shirley to reconsider. My mother thought Shirley was too young. I was five and did not really understand what was going on, but I knew that my mother just did not cry, so this had to be bad. But Shirley and Louis had made up their minds and they married. They were married 48 years when he died.
Shirley and Louis had two children. Sheila Joy, whom they called Joy and fourteen years later a son, Michael. Joy is married and has three children, Heath, Savannah and Lucas. Joy is in charge of the Anniston, Alabama court system. Michael was a college professor, with just a few pages left on his dissertation for his PhD. when he was killed in an automobile accident just before his twenty-ninth birthday.
Louis spend his last days planning for Shirley's future. He sold all his "toys", tractors, guns, etc. He got house plans for a new house and had signed the paperwork with a builder to build her a new house close to most of her family. Then and only then did he let himself be put in the hospital. Three weeks later he died.
Louis was a strong, loving man who never really recovered from his son's death. I think he would have been more willing to fit for life if Michael had still been with him. Louis loved his family, his work, and his animals. He always had cats.
My beloved cat, Big Kitty, died in early December. Big Kitty was 19 years old. I thought he would be with me forever. I miss him everyday. I still haven't been able to get rid of his litter box. I still call out to him as I come home like I always did.
I like to imagine that Louis, Michael and Big Kitty are all together, along with my mother and father and my friend Mary, my aunt Eunice, ... will you get the idea. I don't know what exists beyond this realm but I hope I will see them all again. That is how I can welcome a new year.