10:45 p.m. I worked hard today and I think I created something I can be somewhat proud of as my first piece for the World Year project. That's what the nice graphic on my index page refers to, and that's where these satellite photos are located. That's also where my heart has been these past few weeks. I think it is a grand, exciting project.

The photo on the left shows the stretch of California beach where I live; the photo below shows the marina where our little boat is berthed. We can, and often do, walk from one satellite photo to the other. The marina is one of the few things on the earth that can be seen from space with the naked eye, I've heard. The Great Wall of China is another.

Today there have been extremely heavy winds all day, rattling all the windows and blowing the few crinkly brown leaves at the back of our property all the way around to the front. The winds are supposed to continue through the beginning of the week.

We have a spinner mechanism on the roof of our house and when it really gets going it sounds as if we live in some sort of a factory. There's a constant thump-thump-thumpity-thump and a general heaving of the walls as the wind presses down and tomorrow is manufactured from the raw materials of today.

The air in the house is cold and we haven't turned on the heat yet. I have an ache and a heavy feeling that I believe is from too many almost all-nighters lately, and so I'm wearing three sweaters, with another one on my head ... and I'm breathing over a big mug of steaming tea. I am determined to get to bed tonight for a real night's sleep.

We'll see. I've still got a lot to get finished by Monday, both paid and unpaid tasks. I hardly make a distinction between the two any more, and that definitely worries Igor. For this reason, alone, I will probably never be a rich woman. Luckily, wealth has not been one of my life goals.

Making a big difference -- that's a goal. Making people feel better -- that's a goal. Are these goals too lofty? Only when viewed from a distance.

I've never worked so hard in my life as I have these past few weeks, I think. Certainly my life has become more complicated and interesting since I began posting to the web on these pages exactly five months ago today. I have enough confidence now to consider saying that I'm a writer -- even to my own mother.

That's a first for me, in spite of my resume.

All sorts of interesting things have happened in these past five months. I've corresponded with more people about unimportant but vital things that have to do with this small, unpaid job ... than I have with all the people I've met through all my well-paid writing gigs combined. There seems to be a different kind of currency at work in my life these days.

I feel very sure, for the first time in my life, that I am doing the right thing. That I am in the right place at the right time.

And where would that be, you ask? Look in the photos: can you see the little black dot there in the middle upper left? That's me. I may be tired and have a sweater on my head, but I'm smiling. And pssst -- look closer. I'm waving to you!