mary@maryhanrahan.com

www.maryhanrahan.com

Hanrahan’s

2005, ah yes the year went by at speed but why? What did we do? Here is the closest that I can remember to what happened. For those of you who don’t like printed letters, please skip to the end.

The city started the re-construction of our street, this is still going on, mud and dust all over the place.

January – Mick formally completed his last day of work at TI after 27 years. The day before he left TI Mick had a wreck in the CRV, his “precious”. The car is repaired but Mick is still suffering some neck problems from it and the insurance discussion is still going on. Mary and Mick had another anniversary and Mick had another birthday.

February – Kathleen celebrated 2 years post-tumour, cut off eleven inches of her hair and donated to “Locks of Love” Well gosh something else must have happened but none of us can remember so you probably aren’t interested in it either.

March - Mick started some standards consulting work for a Chinese company. Shawn came home for Spring Break and went searching for insects in our back yard and found “Tranny”, a large black tarantula, we kept Tranny in an aquarium, with the lid securely taped down, until June when we left him in Nigel’s tender care and he failed to survive. My brother, John, his wife Carolyn and their twins Natasha and Sophie came to Texas to visit us. We went out to local lakes and towns and did a bit of tourist sight-seeing. Nigel and his High School team competed in a Robotics competition in Houston. They received an award but just failed to make it to the National Competition.

April - John, Carolyn, Sophie, and Natasha went home. Kathleen started to get sick, this is the start of a summer long trail to various doctors and hospital to try and determine what exactly is wrong with her. She feels like she permanently has flu with aching muscles and joints and lack of energy.

May – Mick continued his consulting work and went to Budapest for a conference and then on to England to visit his family. Mary drove back and forth to College Station getting Shawn moved into the apartment he had rented. He is staying down in College Station for the summer working part-time for one of his professors in the Entomology Department and looking for another part-time job to help pay for his apartment costs.

June – Nigel graduated from Rockwall High School. Mick became an American citizen, then we had to go to Houston to get a passport. The passport activity proved much less time consuming than we had anticipated and we were able to spend some time visiting with old friends in the Houston area. Late in June Mick left for England (again), this time a purely personal trip to go to his School’s celebration of its 100 year anniversary. He met up with old friends and visited for a while. Originally I was going to go with him, but Kathleen was really not well enough to leave and the airfare to England at that time of year is at its most expensive.

July - I stayed in Rockwall and as Mayor of “The Old Town Rockwall Neighborhood Association” was heavily involved in the July 4^th parade and following picnic. Mick made it back from England and Kathleen went to Camp Discovery, the children cancer survivors camp that she has been going to for a couple of years. While Kathleen was away Mary and Mick managed to go to Tyler for a couple of days, staying in a local Bed and Breakfast, this prompted Mary to look into B&B’s in Pennsylvania for her later trip in the fall with Diane.

August - Nigel got a part time job at a local gated community as a “Pool Monitor”. Nigel started packing and getting his stuff together to move to his college apartment the morning we were going to take him over he started complaining about a stomach pains and eventually we ended up at the hospital, he had appendicitis. So his start at college was delayed for a few days while he recuperated. Shawn did not come home for the summer so he went back to A&M for classes late in August. Kathleen started at Rockwall High School, she is not doing Marching Band this fall as she is not well enough to handle the aggressive schedule of summer band camp, after school practices and Friday Night games. The Pediatric Rheumatologist at Children’s Hospital said that Kathleen has a “Pain Syndrome”, in adults they would call it fibromalygia, where her muscles and joints ache but there is no physical problem with them. Apart from exercise the doctor offered little help with the problem, so we are off researching and exploring alternatives. Mary got very mad at the mess that occurred after Hurricane Katrina came ashore, I was however pleased that the local community in Rockwall came out in force to volunteer time and supplies to help.

September - We tried several times to go to College Station to celebrate Shawn’s 21^st Birthday, but things got in the way, Mick and Kathleen were sick, Mick had a business trip to Philadelphia, and then Hurricane Rita arrived. Despite all this Shawn turned 21!!! And we did get to see him. I spent some time planning the trip to New York, Pennsylvania and England.

October – The plan was for Mary and Diane to meet in New York and for Chris to join us and then come with us to Pennsylvania. Unfortunately a couple of days before we were all due to set off Chris’s mother-in-law died in England and she had to make that trip instead. I left Dallas and headed to New York to meet Diane. We stayed in a hotel 2 blocks from Central Park and 2 blocks from the apartment that John Lennon lived in. On our first day out in New York we walked to the apartments and to Central Park, strangely enough it would have been John Lennon’s 65^th birthday that day. An artist was placing flowers and signs on the Imagine mosaic on our first time past it, but by the afternoon there was a fair crowd and a group playing old Beatles songs, Diane joined in, watch the video on my website! We had several more enjoyable days in New York, rode the Staten Island Ferry, walked Brooklyn Bridge visited Chelsea and Greenwich Village all during the wettest week ever in New York. We had a great little diner and a 24 hour corner shop all within a block of the hotel. Then it was off to Pennsylvania and Amish Land where Mary learnt to avoid the buggies in the roads and narrowly missed having to report damage to the rental car from a backward rolling horse and buggy. We stayed at an interesting Bed and Breakfast and toured Amish County and went looking for covered bridges, some of which we saw more than once! Then it was back to England, I went to Ipswich and stayed with Diane for a few days before heading off to Hitchin, Biggleswade, Wellesbourne, Bude and Basingstoke. In all I covered 1300 miles in 2½ weeks. I had a good time visiting family and friends, thanks to everyone for their hospitality. I also managed a few photos, these too can be seen on my new web site. Mick and Kathleen survived by themselves!

November – I made it back, despite being required to repack and resort my bags at the check in counter because one was too heavy! Not a very friendly American Airline person, in fact flying is becoming very unfriendly, the service and food are just not what they were in the old days!. Having made it home, I just got unpacked before it was time to head off to Big Bend for the Thanksgiving Break. The sky was amazingly clear we could see the Milky Way without a telescope. Kathleen is doing better, she was able to walk further than Mick and I. See the amazing climb up a river bank video. Back in Rockwall it is time to start the “Holiday Activities”! We had carriage rides and Santa on the square to get us into the season. The new Rockwall Library Building project is moving far too slowly, I am on the building committee and have spent much time this year looking at libraries, talking to architects etc. etc…, but government moves slowly.

December – Mick went to Munich and yes England again!! And so here we are at the end of the year. As I write this Kathleen is at school the last day before she is off for Christmas. Nigel came home briefly last weekend but went back to his apartment at UTD. Shawn is talking to me about when I am going to pick him up and bring him back to Rockwall for Christmas.

At this Holiday Time we hope that you all enjoyed a break from your busy schedules and lives to relax and chill (like a Polar Bear) with your family and friends. Love, Mary, Michael, Shawn, Nigel & Kathleen