Shopping was easy for Christmas 2005. There wasn't all that much under the tree, but on Christmas morning I marched everyone downstairs to show them the new $4,500 Weil-McLain oil-burning boiler with a 40-gallon, tossed-in-for-nothing-as-part-of-the-deal, hot water tank I'd bought them.

Who doesn't like heat and hot water? They always fit.

The guys who put in the new $4,500 Weil-McLain oil-burning boiler with a 40-gallon, tossed-in-for-nothing-as-part-of-the-deal, hot water tank were nice guys.

I had heard them laughing as they worked - smashing, hammering, drilling, sawing, dismantling and removing the 51-year-old hunk of metal that had been heating our house since it was built in 1954. This new rig, they told me, was going to save me so much in oil consumption that in a short six years, or so, I'd be able to actually acquire an Italian sports car.

One of the nice guys came back a week later when the new $4,500 Weil-McLain oil-burning boiler with a 40-gallon, tossed-in-for-nothing-as-part-of-the-deal, hot water tank stopped working. He said he'd found a loose screw in the thing that was letting air in and preventing this new mechanical marvel from priming itself.

Or something like that.

?????????????????? ? ? The year 2005 brought a new furnace, a new left cheek - the result of skin cancer - and a fair range of the emotions that elevate and afflict the human condition.

It brought encouraging feedback from appreciative readers, too. I described

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the joy of flying in a plane in close quarters with a shrieking tot whose last two meals were now in his diapers, prompting his mom to coo repeatedly, "Jimmy, you are SO stinky!" A gentle reader, the mother of a 17-month old, took the time to observe in an e-mail: "It's obvious that you've never had children. If you have, bless their hearts, what a terrible nuisance they must have been for you. Hopefully they're over 3 feet tall now and worthy of your conversation&. What's the matter? Can't buy out the entire flight so you can travel alone - where you belong. Come back next year, kid."

???????????????? ? ? Actually, there were many extraordinary messages from readers. The best thing about being a reporter is getting to know people, talking to them and listening to their stories. One remarkable experience this year was talking with singer John Mayer, rebuffed about a year ago by his high school when he showed up for an awards ceremony.

When we talked on the phone, his was the voice of a hurt young man. The flap drew lots of attention - and e-mails - given Mayer's international celebrity. It had started with an e-mail from him, and it pretty much ended with another e-mail from him last January. It was fairly long, but it concluded, "Thanks so much &. I appreciate you sticking up for me."

When I was growing up on Maplewood Avenue in Bridgeport that whole "sticking up" for people thing was very important.

????????????????? ? ? You leave a little piece of yourself behind in each year. Events come and go. Friends, acquaintances and people you've never met but somehow influenced you, die.

Steve Ogilvy, of Westport, an excellent tennis player died in 2005 in a car crash coming home from a tennis tournament for guys over 85 years old. Oh, we'd played tennis together as adults over the years, but what I will remember about him was how he always found time to hit a few balls on the courts at Bridgeport's Laurel Courts many years ago with a ragtag group of kids, myself included, and helped instill in them a love of the game and provide a model for behavior on and off a tennis court.

???????????????? ? ? Finally, one of the most poignant pieces of prose that appeared in this newspaper in 2005 was this:

"I can't help but feel good about this marathon. It was not how I wanted it to go. But it was such a metaphor for life. Life doesn't always go the way that you want. And sometimes, after you have given it your all, and prepared as best you can, and it still doesn't go your way, then maybe you have to surrender.

It's then that you can connect to a power that's bigger than you. And that power can bring you home." Those were some of the thoughts a fellow named Tim Donnelly wrote after his 2004 New York Marathon attempt ended in what he at first thought was disappointment. He'd forgotten to bring his breakfast of mashed potatoes, left over from the prior night's dinner, and at mile 20 this experienced marathoner was done.

Tim and his wife Kim were killed when their Fairfield jewelry store was robbed last February. Each time I read his words, I hear more.

Michael J. Daly is managing editor of the Connecticut Post. You can reach him at 330-6394 or by e-mail at mdaly@ctpost.com.