Although I did an entry titled Whirlwind that highlighted a picture from September, I’ll go ahead and pick two more from that month.

Here’s my favorite for the month, from September 10.

It’s a spider eating breakfast. How cool is that?

And here’s the story picture, from September 8.

Luckily, I captured the story behind this picture in my caption. It involved a conversation between my friend Becky and me. It went like this.

Becky: “So are you still doing that thing where you take a picture every day?”

Me: “Yeah. Yesterday was day 251.”

Becky: “Wow. Hey, why don’t you take a picture of the Xpress Mart over there?”

Me: “OK.”

So yes, I do take requests.

October was a busy month, but I saved the best picture for last. I think you can guess which day it’s from.

It’s a funky lamp that’s a stack of plastic pumpkins. I’m not big on decorations, but my Mom bought it for me a while back. I didn’t even bother putting it out. But when my plans to go out on Halloween night fell through, I was stuck at home and needed a picture, so I dug up this lamp.

And then there’s the story picture, commemorating an event that I’ve already written about briefly, from October 2.

This poster is the reason I’m a Yankees fan. One fateful day in late 1978, my parents took my sister and me to a participating Burger King in the Tri-State area, and got this poster with our meal. They gave it to me. I promptly tacked it up on my closet door. (You can see holes and tears on the corners from that. You can also see where my sister decided to “decorate” my poster. I forgave her for that about 6 months ago.)

While I’m quick to point out that nowhere on this poster does it mention that the Yankees won the 1978 World Series, I’m also fairly certain that had they not won, there would be no poster, and without the poster, there’s a pretty good chance I would have ended up a Mets fan.

I posted this photo on the 30th anniversary of Bucky Dent’s famous home run in the AL East playoff game against the Red Sox. Without that home run, the Yankees don’t go on to win the World Series, and I probably don’t become a Yankees fan.

So yes, Red Sox fans are right. It really is Bucky Dent’s fault.

All right, just two more monthly wrap-ups and then a year end retrospective, and I’ll be done writing about Project 365.

So I just looked back at July for the first time since July 31, and it actually looks somewhat better than I remember. Then again, the months tend to blend together during Project 365. There’s a couple of interesting shots that I could choose for my favorite, but I think I’ll go with this one.

It’s just a shot of the late-day sun through some trees in my neighbor’s back yard, but I like the way it came out.

I was a little worried about coming up with a photo with a good story behind it, because, well, I don’t really remember much about July right now. Luckily, I found one where I wrote a little description.

I thought that spider web looked kind of cool, so I took the shot. About an hour later, a strong thunderstorm came through, and the web was gone. I think there’s a lesson to be learned in that.

Since I’m catching up here, I’ll go ahead and move into August. Looking at the photos, it was OK, I guess. I’ll go with this one as my favorite.

Nothing really jumped out at me from this month, but this one is kind of interesting. It’s a building under construction in downtown Charlotte, and it’s got a nice reflection.

The story picture for August is kind of funny.

I was staying in a hotel, and I had been drinking. Based on the time of the photograph, 11:06 PM, I’d guess that I may not have actually been drunk, but I was getting there. I also mentioned the fact that alcohol was involved in the description for this photo, and that’s why it isn’t completely level, because I certainly wasn’t level. Even after all of that, someone left a comment on that photo, saying “Nice perspective and composition!” So that’s the secret to great photography. Lots of alcohol.

Two months is enough for one post. I guess I’ll do September and October together in my next post.

That’s my dining room table, which has now appeared in 70 of my 366 photos.

Right now, I think I’m feeling relieved. I’m now going to put my camera away, and I don’t think I’m going to take it out again until 2011. I kid, but I think I’m going to make a concerted effort to not take any photos on January 1.

Speaking of January 1, (How’s that for a smooth transition?) since I’m probably not going to post again today, Happy New Year!

1. A History of me as a Yankee fan. (I didn’t really want anybody in Boston reading this.)
2. Project 365 pictures from…*pause to scan through old posts*… July?!? Egads!
3. Pictures from August.
4. Pictures from September.

OK, you get the picture. I really do want to write something about each month, though.

Also, I’d like to state for the record that I hate Project 365, and I don’t recommend it to anybody. OK, that’s not entirely true. I’m on day 353, so at this point, I might as well finish the damn thing. I’ll probably come up with some kind of post-mortem in 2015.

I watched the last game at Yankee Stadium on TV. I was happy the Yankees won, happy to see Jeter and Pettitte and Rivera play one more time. I also watched the ceremony before the game.

I expected to be moved when they showed a clip from Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech. Seeing Thurman Munson’s son, Phil Rizzuto’s wife Cora, Mickey Mantle’s son (My goodness, he looks just like his father), Bobby Murcer’s family, all those moments also made me a little sad. But the one moment where I have to admit I totally lost it was a clip of an event that didn’t even take place at the Stadium. In fact, it took place in Fenway Park, 30 years ago today.

Yes, Bucky Dent’s famous home run in the 1978 playoff game. I wasn’t expecting this to bring me to tears. I’ve seen it plenty of times before. It’s a long story that I’d like to someday write a long post about, but Bucky Dent’s home run indirectly led to me becoming a Yankee fan. Watching it right before they were getting ready to close Yankee Stadium, I realized this is why I cared so much that this building was about to host its last game.

So, 30 years later, I just want to say thank you, Bucky Bleeping Dent.

On a side note, I noticed that the picture I chose originally had a width of 666 pixels before I shrunk it down to fit on the page. Evil Empire, indeed.

And here’s what I wrote for the description of the photo.

This is my stuffed dog Blue. I got him when I was a baby, and he was my nighttime companion growing up. (You’ll have to trust me, his original color was a very light blue.) He has stitches, stains from nosebleeds, and very little of his original fur. If you’ve ever read The Velveteen Rabbit, Blue is definitely Real. (Also, I’m 35, so my dog Blue came *way* before Blue’s Clues.)

I knew when I started Project 365 that at some point I would want to take Blue down from the shelf in my closet where he now lives and take a photo of him. Today seemed like the right day. Unfortunately, the circumstances aren’t ideal. I’ve been through a lot of stuff recently, and most of it hasn’t been good. If I wasn’t already 260+ days into it, I’d probably stop doing Project 365 because of all the other stuff. So this is really just a reminder of simpler times for me, and that’s a reminder I need right now.

I’ll be the first to admit it’s not a great photograph, but I think it’s a photo that I had to take. I’m not sure I feel any better at the moment, but I feel like I’m at least pointed in the right direction now.

A funny thing happened when I went out of town to visit my parents for Father’s Day. I lost my camera. It turned up buried in my laptop bag, but I didn’t find it until after I got back home. So I sort of missed two days, June 13 and 14. I ended up posting re-creations of the pictures I would have taken. June 13 was when I got my birthday presents (almost a month late, but I don’t mind), so I arranged a shot of them to cover that day, and June 14 was Flag Day, so I took the obligatory shot of the flag. Yes, I took both of these pictures on June 15, but I couldn’t bear the thought of starting over. Since neither picture is all that spectacular anyway, I won’t show them here. On to the two pictures that I do want to highlight. The first is from June 23.

I’ve had a lot of shots that I thought would look good, but ended up sucking. This is one of the rare instances (maybe the only instance) where I was pleasantly surprised by how the picture turned out. It’s funny, I took that in the morning before I went to work, then totally forgot I had taken it. I spent the evening frantically trying to get a decent shot in downtown Charlotte, and when I loaded all of my attempts onto my PC, I saw this picture first and said, “Wow.” The rest of my shots ended up sucking, so I lucked out on this one.

The second photo is from June 6.

The story behind this one is that I went on a trip to Myrtle Beach in early June. My sister had to go down there for business and got a free hotel room right on the beach, with enough room for me and my parents, so she invited us all down there. One morning, me and my Dad went for a walk on the beach. I took this shot as we were walking underneath a pier. I like the way it turned out, and of course, I like the fact that I took it while I was walking on the beach with Dad.

I was looking through his IMDB entry to see if there was anything notable there that I had forgotten about. I didn’t find anything old of note, but I did notice that he had started work on Jurassic Park IV. They’re making another one? Egads.

In an earlier entry, I referred to my April photographs as “a steaming pile of crap.” May was better. Nowhere to go but up, I suppose. I still had plenty of days where I ended up with stuff like a light switch, the back of a chair, and, to close out the month, my glasses, but thanks to a couple of trips, events, and other lucky breaks, I was able to get a few pictures that I like. My low light photography still needs work, but at least I’m aware of it. I know my limitations.

Anyway, first we have what I consider to be the 2nd best picture of the month.

I liked the old building, the old tree, and the setting sun in between the branches. There’s not much story behind it. Basically, I got out of my car, looked up, saw it, took the picture, went on my merry way. It’s not my favorite picture of the month. In fact, it’s not even the best sunset picture of the month.

On May 16, I volunteered to help set up for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life. I signed up for a shift that ran from 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM. I ended up leaving just after 10:00 PM. It was hard work, but incredibly rewarding. At one point, I noticed the sun was just about to set, and ran up a small hill to a baseball field. I put my camera at the top of the fence, and I got this shot.

Besides being a pretty good sunset photograph, it reminds me of that day. For a couple of weeks leading up to that day, I had been in kind of a funk. It seemed like every little thing wasn’t going my way. Case in point, before I got to Relay For Life, I had to go get my driver’s license renewed. After waiting over half an hour in one office, their computers went down, and I had to drive across town to another office. Nothing really major happened, just a bunch of little things.

Being around cancer survivors helps put things in perspective. Plus I felt like I was actually making a difference, and that felt pretty good.

5 months down, 7 to go. One photo at a time, I guess.

As far as hard-hitting analysis…well, I’ve only watched 3 or 4 games so far in the post-season, including last night, so I don’t have much. The Red Wings looked pretty good, though.