Has The Year really been The Year?

On August 15, 2004, the day before the 2004-2005 school year began, I declared that the impending school year would be "The Year." In that post, I set forth some goals for the year. Let's see how I did.

• Be more outgoing. I'd say I improved in this area, probably because I had met a lot of people from my first year. However, I met fewer people during The Year.
• Learn to drive. They were passing out copies of the Driver's Handbook last week at school, and suffice it to say it was the first time I had ever laid eyes on one.
• Umm... Yep, I definitely did that.
• Win the girl of my dreams. Haha, yeah right. Haha, yeah right. I was in fact alluding to a specific person, who has always eluded me and ever will. In other news, I still have never had a girlfriend or anything like one. The End.
• Let me think, here... I apologize belatedly for this misplaced comma.
• Maintain my good grades? Though my final report card hasn't arrived yet (and is not due to arrive for another two weeks), I can safely say that I have kept my grades up throughout the year.

Since I did not achieve all of these goals, I have no choice but to declare The Year a failure.

As promised previously, here are several photos of the destruction caused to Hutchinson Island, which was battered by two hurricanes last year.

Facing southeast. These trees were mangled by the storms; probably more so by Hurricane Frances because it moved much more slowly. Though the eye of Hurricane Jeanne made landfall on this island, the eye of Frances hit just nearby.

The same trees from a different angle (facing southwest, taken in the field to the right of the pool in the previous photo). Note the condo in the background: apparently some people have kept their places boarded up.

This is the sort of thing I'd like... and hey, I do! As in the olden days, you can send a Western Union telegram. The telegram was once the medium of choice for stuff that had to get there immediately. It's a good way to impress people, I bet. If I were to write to my Congressman, I'd send a telegram, probably.

The only downside is that each one is $15 a pop. And I bet they don't use Morse code or anything to transmit the message. These days it's probably just a glorified fax.