Where in the heck did the year 2006 go? Now, I know that it really didn't go anywhere, but it did it too fast.

It seems that as we get older, the years just go by faster. In my case, they will soon be rocketing by, but last year just seemed to go by too fast by any standard. I'll bet that it passed by faster for those of us with children since life's milestones only come once. We tend to look forward to these events before they arrive and fondly remember them after they pass, but we seldom treasure as much as we should as they happen.

We had a couple of these milestones in our family this year, and maybe that made it seem like a short year.

One of the great milestones is when the children whom we taught to walk and read and ride a bicycle just a few years ago finally get their first driver's license. I have only two children. My wife claims that she has three, but she always counts me, and that doesn't count.

When the year started, my oldest child was driving, but he had never spoken to an officer of the court except at school or during the summer block party. Now he knows several highway patrolmen, judges, bailiffs and court clerks quite well. He is, after all, a rather engaging young man.

Also, when last year began, my youngest child was not even old enough for a learner's permit. By the time the year ended, she too was a duly licensed California driver and off exploring her new world, albeit at a more leisurely pace than her older sibling.

I used to joke that my children would always return home because I had two of the greatest gifts a parent could have- money and car keys. Now they have their own and don't need mine anymore.

Fortunately, my wife and I knew that this day would come, and we prepared for it by acquiring the two things that will always instill a yearning to return home in those who are now young adults and no longer children- a stove and a washing machine

You might think that I'm kidding again. What do a stove and a washing machine have to do with the bond between parent and child (or young adult)? When all is said and done, and we all know it, both the stove and the washing machine are pretty useless without a mom around.

Another of the great personal milestones that passed this year was the high school graduation of my son and his entrance into the world of higher education. I mentioned in an earlier column that we always knew that he would end up in a California institution- we were just never sure until now if the institution would be educational or penal.

Maybe the years go by faster as we get older because each year becomes a smaller and smaller portion of the life we have lived. When you're only three, the next year will occupy one quarter, or 25 percent, of your life. At my age, next year will take 1.7 percent of my life to pass. Thankfully, I appear to have plenty of time left, since I took the time to figure that out. You don't have to figure it out- just ask your kid.

We lost a lot of good people this last year, and many of them left behind great words of wisdom on the passing of time. I haven't yet come up with any great words of wisdom, but I figure that as long as I answer "not yet" when someone asks if I've lived here all my life, I'll be all right.

I hope that last year, whether it seemed long or short, was good to you and that this next year will be even better.