"Ready or not here I come." "Your big old honey bear is all clean and cuddly." "It's like all this time I've been walking around with my eyes closed." " How so honey?" " Those ugly drapes..." "Look at them." "And the deer's head and these paint by numbers pictures..." " I hate them!" " You do?" "And that clunky old chest, the cactus lamp and that ratty old dusty halibut." "You never seem to mind these things before." "I wasn't married before." "I'm not some shack job from Saskatoon." "I'm Mrs. Shelly Tambo-Vincoeur, a wife." "I may look like the same hot dudette chick I always was but inside I'm changed, way changed." " You are?" " Yeah, like totally." "Changed how?" "I don't know but some things matter that didn't used to." " Like?" " Separating whites from darks." "Making the bed before we go down to work," "Having the house reflect my inner me..." "The Roger Bennets of Rye, New York took a cheesy suburban home and turned it into their dream country farmhouse." "They added wainscoting and a covered porch and this lattice hut thing to the backyard." "Now they're so into their place they don't go away on vacation." "Are you saying you'd like to redecorate my house?" " 10-4 Holling." "What do you say?" " Sure." "Buy some new things!" " Have a good time." " Babe you are the coolest." "Can't swap skin now Big H, got to hit the catalogues." "NORTHERN EXPOSURE 4x20 "HOMESICK" Subtitles subXpacio" "Hi, Maurice." "Listen." "It's here." " It is?" " Yeah." " Great." " You bet." "What is?" "That is, Ed." "It's a house." "A moving house." " That house is on wheels" " Yeah." "But it's not just any house." "It's a historical landmark." "That domicile was home for a future Mercury astronaut." "I grew up there." " Really?" " You bet you." "The Oklahoma Dept. of Transportation was gonna tear it down to make room for an exit on a highway." "Soon as I got wind of that I called the Tulsa Historical Society and offered it to them free." "I even offered to pay the moving costs." " Are you Mr. Minnifield?" " Yeah, that's me." " You know what they said?" " No." "They said they didn't have room." "Oklahoma's loss is Cicely's gain." " So where do you want it?" " Just out of town." "I'll get my car and get in front of you to lead you to it." "Alrighty." "Excuse me." "Shelly, did you get my order?" "Turkey club on whole wheat cottage cheese no chips and a cup of coffee as well." "Shelly?" "How do you feel about gothic revival?" "What's that?" "Check out this bodacious sitting room, folio table chapel screen, needlepoint rug." ""Metropolitan Home"." "I didn't know you were into design." "Me neither until somebody left a "House Beautiful" in the john." "I started reading it, just zoned." "Yeah?" " Pretty gnarly, huh?" " To tell you the truth," "I find the gothic clutter kind of stifling." " Yeah?" " Yeah." "At this point in my life I'm more of a minimalist." "Clean sharp lines, very spare." "A lot of angles and light, open spaces." " Shelly?" " This rococo stuff is cool too." "All the baby angels and stuff..." "Nice shot." " Hey!" " Hi." "Don't you look like the cat who ate the canary." " What's this?" " Open it up." " Lab results..." " Joel just gave them to me." "Guess what my eosinophil count is." "50 percent?" "White count, T cells, they're all in the green zone." "That's incredible." "Your hemocrit's at the top of the range." "Your serum electrolytes too, your sodium potassium, chlorides..." "You know what this means?" " Mike, this means you're..." " Normal." "Healthy." "May 1918," "Thomas Jefferson Minnifield returns from the fields of France." "While recovering from a mustard gas attack he wins the hand of his nurse, Nancy Perkins, former Miss Tulsa." "Together they sink the family flag in 400 acres of Oklahoma hardscrabble." "See that window up there?" "Arthur, my father, was born in that bedroom." "Then 20 years later young Maurice Minnifield drew his first sweet breath of life." "Right back there, my mother's flower garden:" "Daffodils, tulips and the most beautiful yellow marigolds between Tulsa and Newligog." "Yeah." "I don't see any flowers, Maurice." "Of course not." "They ceased to exist years ago." "They only exist in my mind's eye." "Very pretty." "Yeah." " You see that window pane up there?" " Yep." "My brother Malcolm once fired a crab apple through there." "We were having a pitching battle with the Wilson boys." "The folks were away on errands at the time." "Adventures in babysitting." "You know: the house is a mess, parents due to arrive any second and Elizabeth Shue doesn't have a moment to spare." "Malcolm and I put in a spare pane." "Got it in as the folks drove up." " Way to go, Maurice!" " That's as far as you go, Ed." "I need a little privacy, if you don't mind." "Sure." "Thanks for showing me the outside of your house." "I especially enjoyed the imaginary flowers." "Don't mention it." "Mike and I are celebrating his recovery with pizza." " Pizza?" " He hasn't had one for 6 years." "Can you believe that?" "The nitrates in the pepperoni, the enzymes in the mozzarella, his system couldn't handle it." " Right." " What?" "Take my word for it, O'Connell." "Mike could handle pizza." "He could have inhaled mozzarella, mainlined pepperoni." "Fleischman, I thought you were beyond that." "As much as I like Mike, my medical opinion has never wavered." "His condition in remission or full blown is purely psychogenic." "You can't get over it, can you?" " What?" " That Mike and I are happy together." "Don't make me gag." " Fleischman." " What?" "You have a fragile ego." "If you're unhappy, everybody has to be." "That's not true." "I think it's touching, endearing that two emotional cripples can find each other to lean on." "That'll be 9 dollars and 45 cents dear." "It's a textbook case of codependency." "Mike, who has a sad chronic need to be taken care of and you, who has a sad chronic need to be needed." "Perfect!" "Any other day I might belt you for a statement like that but I'm not going to." "I'm not gonna rise to the bait, not even gonna nibble." "You know why?" "Because I feel some pity for you." "I have this romantic date with somebody I really care about and you, you don't." " See you, Ruth-Anne" " Bye." "Hello?" "Anybody home?" "Mike?" "Unbelievable!" " Six million barrels." " Sorry?" "A single hulled tanker founded off the coast of Newfoundland 6 million barrels of crude oil washed up on shore fouling 20 miles of an extremely delicate marine ecosystem." " That's horrible." " Yeah." "Get a load of this." "The air in Mexico City is so toxic and so dangerous that US diplomats who serve there are actually given combat pay." " Really?" " What was I thinking?" "I'm not sure." "How can I of all people continue leading a normal life?" "A life of simple every day pleasures of creature comforts romantic involvement when we are all on the verge of Armageddon?" "A final battle between good and evil." "It was easy to sit things out when I was sick." "But I'm well again." "I've been given a second chance." "How am I gonna spend it?" "Mowing the lawn?" "Walking into a 30 year fixed at 8.5?" "Indulging in candlelit pizza dinners and cuddling in front of a fire?" "Or making a difference out there?" "There is something so great about pizza." "I don't know what it is." "I think it's the toasty crust, and the squishy sauce and the cheese and how it all comes together to make a perfect 3 point landing." " Are you ready?" " Yeah." "Are you ready?" "There you go." "I can't believe you've been deprived of this for all these years." "It must be like getting out of jail, out of solitary confinement." " Yeah." " Makes me appreciate all those things" "I took for granted:" "like a fire on a cold night, or the smell of freshly washed curtains in your window or smell of cut grass after you just mow the lawn." "Now we can share all these things." "The pizza," "The trip to Cordova..." "It's just the beginning." "Is something wrong?" " I have to go." " What?" " I have to leave." " It's just 8:30." " I have to leave Cicely." " You have to leave Cicely?" " Yes." " Alaska?" "Yes." "Why?" "I was a victim of environmental abuse." "I was almost road kill, flattened by the speeding big rig of environmental degradation." "How can I stand by and watch while others are sacrificing fighting to save the rain forests, wetlands, arable savannahs?" " You just got your health back." " Right." "I got it back." "I've been given a second chance." "I have to believe there's a reason for that." "That doesn't mean you have to leave Alaska." "There's a pipeline demonstration in Valdez next week." "Why don't we?" "We could handcuff ourselves to the processing station." "What do you think about that?" "What's this?" ""Michael Monroe, report to the Captain of the Sirius in Murmansk 12 April 08:00"." "Murmansk?" "Russia?" "That's 200 km north of the Arctic Circle." "We'll be investigating the dumping of used nuclear reactors in the Barents Sea." " We?" " Greenpeace and me." "They need a lawyer." "With my unique sensitivity to toxic effluents," "I'll be able to monitor all kinds of pollutants from radioactive isotopes to petrochemical sludge." "I think you should leave now." " Maggie, look..." " Mike,..." " I'm sorry." " I just think you should go." "For those who haven't heard, Mike Monroe is packing up and heading up to frosty Murmansk, Russia." "That's right, Cicely, our own environmental crusader is leaving us to take on the hydra headed monster of chemical devastation now threatening the biosphere." "We can all do our part by buying" "Ruth-Ann's victory ribbons, made from recycled Christmas wrap available at her store or the Brick." "Help send Mike to the front, wear the green people." "Elsewhere on the KBHR bulletin board, Mort Carlson leads his annual caribou hunt next month improving on last year's expedition." "This year includes all meals and portable heaters." "Call Mort for details." "Mike, this one's for you." " Thank you for your contribution." " You're welcome." "How about a ribbon Joel to help Mike by his dry suit?" "I heard about this and I was really hoping it was a joke." "Every contribution above 15 dollars gets you a premium." "A premium on what?" "20 dollars gets you to a T shirt, 25 fetches a tote bag, and 50 dollars gets you this special CD package." "I don't believe this." "What is wrong with you people?" "What...?" "This is just..." "It's like some collective cabin fever or something?" " How much can we put you down for?" " I like Mike as much the next guy but we're dealing with a very unstable individual." "Mike is going to be in some very cold water." "He's gonna need that dry suit." "You drive a hard bargain." "You missed your calling." "You should have been a fundraiser." "3 dollars?" "Lowell Grippo put in 20 and you know what a bad year it's been for kayak rentals." " Thank you." " You're welcome." "Don't you want your ribbon?" "That's the paper for the bedroom, all the way back on the right." "Slip covers?" "Cool, follow him." "Mrs. Vincoeur, the bathroom trim was that Mandalay or Camellia?" "Camellia." "We can't use the Mandalay." "It's got that tick of lemon." "Right." "Shelly, we lost our water down here." "You know anything about it?" "The plumber's putting in the new commode." "It'll only be about an hour." "Cover for me, will you H?" "I don't trust the carpet guys." "Watch those walls!" "Don't scratch 'em." "Ok." "No problem." "Sweet gherkins, peanut butter, eggs, artichoke hearts." "We got your oatmeal." "Instant breakfast drink, water packed tuna." " Ed." " Yeah." "Why don't we ever learn?" "It's always the same old story, isn't it?" "Just when you think you're getting close, when there's a glimmer of hope you might have something lasting, they're out the door." " Well..." " I should have known." "But it's just he sucked me in." "He seemed so caring and open, not in that wimpy, manipulative way but in that honest man's man kind of way." "You know what really got me, what really hooked me?" "After we slept together he didn't change." "You know how so many men after you sleep with them they withdraw." "They think they owe you something or the intimacy scares them." "Mike didn't get spooked." "If anything we were closer." "Not that the sex was that great." "Mike was a by the books guy." "No whipped cream, no kitchen tables, but that was ok." "That gave us a place to go." " Well, Maggie..." " Yeah?" "That's gonna be 14 dollars and 30 cents." "I guess the thing that hurt the most is I didn't see it coming." "Who'd have known?" "I guess under all that ecology and classical music and house plants, he's just like all the rest..." " Men?" " Exactly." " See you." " See you." " It's fine thing you're doing." " Thank you." "If I were 20 years younger, I'd fall in right behind you." " Yes, sir." " Back in '55, a few buddies and I sugared the gas tanks of some bulldozers." "Excuse me." " About last night..." " I can't talk right now." " I didn't explain myself well." " I got a charter for Skagway." "I've got oil to change." "I know I should have discussed this with you first." "Not at all." "We didn't have any commitment." "You're a free agent." "You can do what you like." "No!" "That's not true." "It's the hardest decision I've ever made." "Can't we sit and talk?" "I said I've got to go." "My dad papered this whole house himself." "Look at the flooring." "It's heart pine, can't get it anymore" "They leveled all those trees in the name of Western expansion." " It's really nice." " Yeah." "Where'd you get all this stuff?" "I put all this in storage after mother died." "I was gonna donate it to Good Will but never got around to it." "Look at this." "Mother made this right after Malcolm was born." "We called it our flying carpet." "With a running start you could slide all the way across this room." "I cracked my brainpan on this hearth one time." "12 stitches and more blood than you'd think a 10 year old had." "I wore that scar as a badge of honor." "Is this your old man?" "No, it's Malcolm." " What do you want to do with this?" " Just hang it by the staircase." "I can see him now working that Neat's foot oil in." "Hour after hour after hour." "It's almost like he's here." "Like he could come sliding down that banister side saddle, like he used to do." ""La petite madeleine"." "It's a French pastry." "It was Marcel Proust's favorite as a kid." "In his 30's he bites one, his childhood rushes back to him." "Out popped 16 volumes of remembrance of things past." "Of course he spent the last 15 years of his life in a cork lined bedroom." " Don't peak." " I can't see anything anyway." "Careful!" "Ready?" "It's not quite done yet, still waiting on the pink throw rug." "What do you think?" "Do you love it?" "Say something, Holling." "Well..." " You hate it." " No, Shelly..." "It just takes a little while to absorb it all." "Is that my Athabascan footstool?" "I gave that to the painters." "It's so Pacific Northwest grunge" "It didn't go with the total..." "Did you see this lampshade with the tassels?" "And these matching art pieces made with real sea shells?" "That is very interesting." "Now that you've had time to absorb everything, what do you think?" "I..." "Well..." "I like it." "You like it?" "You mean really like it?" " I love it." " Cross your heart and hope to die?" "Stick a needle in my eye." "Wings over England, but these are wings of the RAF." "US built bombers outward bound for raid upon the continent, raids to repay the Nazis tenfold for their wanton attacks upon defenseless cities." "Attention." "Seats, please." "Ok, people." "The Germans are resupplying their entire front in the Ardennes through this bridge at Oberlahnstein." "It's heavily defended on both banks of the Rhine by anti-aircraft batteries." "However we believe a single light bomber flying at night low enough to avoid radar could take out this bridge." "Now, I need a volunteer." "Just one for that light bomber." "I'd like to point out this is not just a single span suspension bridge." "No!" "This is the minotaur." "The medusa, the cyclops." "Have we not read our Joseph Campbell." "I'm talking about a hero's journey." ""Separation, initiation and return." "A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder." "Fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won." "The hero comes back with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man." " Boons sir?" " Gifts both literal and metaphorical." "Psychologically his exploits form a context so that we can all better understand our own individual natures." " I'll do it!" " Mike!" "I'll take out that bridge." "It's suicide." "You'll get killed." "You heard the Major." "Remember your comparative mythology?" "Perseus, Rama, King Arthur..." "A culture needs its heroes." " Exactly." " But why you?" "Why not me?" " Good luck." " Thank you, sir." "I'll go check on my ordinance." " Mike!" " See you, Maggie." "Mike!" "Hello, Marilyn." "I forgot to say Donald Summer is coming at 3:00." "He has a carbuncle on his left leg." "I'm going to incise it." "So you need to sterilize a scalpel with a number 11 blade." "I'll need clamps, dressings and a saline solution and bulb syringe." "My birthday was over a month ago and there wasn't a word." "It's late to appease me with a sweater." "Besides when was the last time you saw me wear pea-green?" " It's not for you." " Who's it for?" " It's for Mike." " Mike Monroe?" "You're knitting a sweater for Mike?" "You hardly know him." "I don't understand." "What about me?" "I'm your friend, your confident, your employer." "You never knitted me socks." "Let alone a sweater." " Mike's an eagle." " He's a what?" " He's a hero." " Mike is a hero?" "No, a hero is Jonas Salk," "Normal Schwarzkopf, Reggie Jackson,..." "Not a hypochondriac who cruises the Bering sea with a bunch of tree huggers." "That is not an eagle." " I'm sorry." " You're jealous." "What's that?" "I'm jealous?" "It's interesting." "If I say the least thing about Mike that might be construed as negative suddenly I have a problem." "I have fragile little ego and I'm jealous." "Do you have a minute Joel?" "No, unless Marilyn has finished with her" " psychological evaluation." " I am." "Thank you very much." "After you." "Take your coat off, and have a seat there." " What's seems to be the trouble?" " I'm blocked." " Blocked?" " My entrails." "Nothing's moving." " You mean you're constipated?" " Yeah." " How long since your last evacuation?" " I count two days now." "Two days?" "That's not very long." "How often do you usually go?" "Once a day directly after my morning coffee." " You must skip a day now and then." " No." " You never skip a day?" " Never." " Not one, ever?" " Not in 63 years." "That's incredible." "You've moved your bowels once a day every day for your entire life." " Yes." " Wow!" "Every day." "How's your diet?" "You getting enough roughage, fruits, vegetables?" "Shelly made a big Waldorf salad just last night." "Polished off most of it myself." "Any change in your life style?" " Life style?" " Yeah, anything different." "There's the pink gingham canopy over my bed." "Pink canopy?" "And the scallop curtains and the shag wall to wall and the chaise percée over the john." "I don't understand." "Shelly has been redecorating my... our place." "I can understand why she wants to put a brand on the place but giving away my Athabascan footstool, I have a hard time with." "That's probably why you're backed up." "It's not uncommon." "You have an unfamiliar surrounding, like in an airplane or a hotel." "Even a strange toilet seat can make someone irregular." "When I was first exhaled here I was plugged up for a week." "The surroundings are not just unfamiliar." " There..." " Effeminate?" "Ed brought over some groceries, said it looked like Bye-bye birdie." "Look, I'd rather not prescribe any unnecessary medication." "My advice is to just put your foot down." "Let her know who wears the pants." " You mean?" " Tell her want your stool back." "Eight, nine and one makes ten." "Thank you very much." " Mike!" " Yes, Dave." " What is this?" " An NSA water purification system." "It hooks up under the sink, has an activated carbon filter which takes out chlorine, fluoride, lead, etc." "How about Giardia?" "A colony of beavers spent most of the summer camping out on my finger of the lake." "Giardia, E coli, most bacteria." "And there's replacement filters." "Enough to get you through the rest of the century." "I'll take it." "Great." " Mike." " Hi, Ed." "Glad you stopped by." "I have something for you." "Your left over surgical scrubs!" " I thought you could use them." " Thanks, but I'll not need 'em." " No?" " No." " See Mike, I want to go with you." " With me?" "On the ship?" "Yep." "I've been thinking, it's like Casablanca." "Remember how Rick doesn't want to get involved he just wants to run his "Café Americain"?" "But when the Germans are gonna arrest Paul Henreid he realizes that all his troubles don't amount to a hill of beans." "So what's he do?" "He shoots Conrad Veidt and goes off with Claude Rains to join the free French at Brazzaville." "I appreciate what you're trying to do but you can't come with me." "I'm very well suited to this kind of life." "I have no family obligations plus I can fall asleep almost anywhere." "You can't come with me." "You're needed here." "I am?" "Someone has to stay behind and remind people what this is about, to organize recycling and carpools and to go to the market with his own sack, to use cloth napkins and unbleached toilet paper, to mulch, to insulate, to use flow restrictors." "I hadn't thought about that." "With your talents you have an additional responsibility to keep making your movies." "To show people what's happening." "To open their eyes and minds." "Each of us has to serve where he can do the most good." " For you, that's Cicely, Alaska." " You're right." "Thanks." "Maurice!" " Found it." " It's about time." "Give it to me." "What are you doing in there?" "I just remembered what's been eating at me." "It's right in here, my secret hiding place." "I was watching Ruth-Anne's cash drawer slide out, and the memory of came just as clear to me as a mile high sky." "If you want the treasure use this guide." "Fourth tread, stringer side." "A mnemonic device." "Look at that." "Still here." "There we go." "Just the way I left it." "I'm one of Hoppy's rangers." "Is this yours?" "It's my box, everything in here is mine, except these." " Fish?" " These were Malcolm's." "Malcolm loved these fish." "He named each one:" "Skippy, Frank, Spauling and Lucky." "Every night before bed he'd line 'em up on his table." "I stole them." "The mind reels at the vindictiveness and cruelty young people are capable of." " Mike?" " Maggie!" " Is this a bad time?" " No, I was just packing." "If you're busy I..." " No!" "Come in." "You want a drink?" " No." "I just came to..." "You know... say goodbye." "Yeah..." "I just wanted to let you know I think what you're doing is great," "and important and courageous." " You really do?" " Yes, I do." "Someday, when kids ask me," ""who lived in the bubble outside town covered with lichen and clematis?"," "I'll say Mike Monroe lived there." "Just about the bravest man I ever knew." "Not me, you." "Me?" "You're the brave one." "Brave enough to see past the surgical gloves, and strained vegetables and inhalers." "and see that deep down I could be healthy." "You inspired me to stick with my antigen injections." "To take that first step out of my bubble and breath unfiltered air." "You made me keep pushing the edge of the envelope." "To try dressing on my salad, Scrabble without my gloves." "Without you I'd never had dared to wear cotton poly blend shirts or brush my teeth with a fluoride paste." "Yes, you would have." "You'd have done all those things without me." "No." "If it hadn't have been for you" "I'd still be a prisoner in this dome." "I'll help you pack." "Here you go." "You can start right here." "This is rich." "The Cicely choral society is giving a benefit performance for Mike." "I need to check my psych books to see if there are similar cases of mass hysteria." "He's here." " Who's here?" " Mike." " Mike Monroe is here?" " Hello Joel." "Mike, hi." " Is anything wrong?" " No, not at all." " Then what...?" " I came here to thank you." " Well look..." " Listen." "I know you always harbored some doubts about my condition." "It's ok." "You thought I was wacko, probably still do." "Thing is, no matter what your feelings were you always provided me with excellent medical care." "I really want you to know." " You're a first rate physician." " I appreciate that." "Thank you." "As a token of my appreciation I'd like you to have this." "Your IPPB respirator?" " I thought maybe you could use it." " Are you kidding." "A Bird 6400 ST with compressor and blender." "Ever since pulmonary rotation I've dreamed of ventilating a patient with one of these." "Man that's..." "I don't even know what to say." "Thank you." "Listen there's something I'd like you to do for me." " Name it." " Be there for Maggie." "I don't when I'm coming back." "Truth is, I don't know if I'm coming back." "You'll be back, of course you will and look," "I'm the last person O'Connell would want to be there for." "We both know there's something between you two." "No, really." "She's crazy about you." "And we can't be in the same room together without drawing blood." "The only thing between us is a mutual acrimony." "Be there for her." "Ok?" "Ok." "See you." "Hi, Maurice." "Malcolm." "Better not spill that on Mom's good sofa." "No, I'll..." "I'll be careful." "You got big, Maurice." "Yes." "Yes, I did." "Look at that Mal." "I'd forgot that water stain on the ceiling." "It's from when the tub ran over." "You used to say it looked like a pony's head." "Yeah, those are the ears and there's the mane." " Malcolm?" " Yeah?" "Do you remember that fishing game you had?" "The one with the poles, metal fish and magnets at the end of the line." "I lost the fish." "No, I took them." "Probably the last time you had a chance to play with them." "I want you to know I'm sorry." "I'm truly sorry." "It's ok." " Holling!" " It's open." "Holy cow." "It's a change, isn't it?" "Change?" "That doesn't begin to describe this." "This is..." " This is..." " Pink." " Yeah." " Careful not to bump into those glass unicorns." "Holling," "I got to tell you... this would bind me up." "I mean..." "My colon would be tied in knots." "I mean..." "No man could move his bowels in here." "Have you said anything yet?" "No." " Are you regular yet?" " No." "Still bound up like a rusty vice." "You know I..." "I planned on laying it on the line with Shelly, I truly did." "But when I looked into her eyes and saw how happy and content she is, nesting like a November spruce hen, making a home for the two of us." "So I held my tongue." "Well that's big of you but you got to be in some discomfort." "I intend to acclimate Joel." " Acclimate?" " Like those fellows that climbed" "Mount McKinley." "They don't scale it all at once." "They go up a little at a time." "Come back down, go up further, come back..." "It's a slow process but eventually they get up to 20,000 feet." "Breathing without the aid of an oxygen mask." "I'll tell you what, in case the process is slower than you think" "I'll send over some Dulcolax." "It's mild so don't worry." " I appreciate it." " Don't mention it." "Hi." "In my experience you shouldn't travel without these 2 things." "Eyeshades and elastic clothes line." " Thanks, Ruth-Anne." " You're welcome." "Bye." "Bye bye." " I'll carry that?" " Thanks Dave." "The latest Judith Krantz." "Not just a woman's book, a real page turner." "Great!" "Thanks, Dave." "Hi!" "Figured you'd get the munchies sooner or later so I whipped up a whole mess of oatmeal scotchies." "Only cooked halfway so they're chewy." " Thanks." " So long, Mike." "So long, Holling." "Mike." "Hey, Joel." "These are for you." "Blood chemistry tests and your IGE work." "Every sputum and nasal micro exam we did, all right there." "My file." "I'd almost forgotten that rash back in November." "You wanted to hospitalize me." " Seems like a million years ago." " Yeah." "Thanks, this means a lot." "Carry a spare Decadron Resihaler." "Maybe some Synophylate too." "Just as a precaution." "You have my word." " Be well, Mike." " Bye." "Well, this is it." "At least I know I'll be warm and dry." "Thank you all." "By 11:00 tomorrow morning I'll be steaming toward the Arctic Circle." "But Murmansk, everybody that's just the beginning." "I'm starting a journey taking me from the rainforests of Brazil to poison water of the Vistula." "To you who have made this moment possible," "I give my solemn oath that wherever there's a toxic landfill, I'll be there." "Wherever there's a fast bleeder plutonium reactor, I'll be there." "I'll be where the particulates and sulfur dioxide fall to the ground as acid rain." "I'll be where petroleum derivatives are seeping into the aquifers." "Where the smallest refrigeration unit is leaking hydrofluorocarbons, I'll be there." "My dear friends, fair thee well and if forever, still forever, fair thee well." "You got to write." " I will." " I'll never forget you." "I love you, Maggie." "Ripped by subXpacio and TusSeries"