Monday. 5:00 a.m. wakeup time. Not fun. In fact, the 5:00 a.m. wakeup time is going to drive me to suicide one of these days. I hate it that much. And I am not exaggerating.

I sold two items on eBay yesterday. One of the buyers paid today, which meant that after work I wanted to print out a shipping label and pack up the item for mailing. Sounds easy enough. But this is me we’re talking about – well, that I’m talking about and you’re reading about – so nothing is ever easy.

First I needed to uncover the printer. For a while I was doing fairly well at keeping the printer accessible. Then I started “cleaning things up,” and the printer got buried. Simply moving things off the top of the printer was not an option as there is no space to set things that I move. Also, as I mentioned a few days ago, merely touching anything in The Room of Doom results in a cascade of chaos. Shuffling things back and forth and around and about to access the printer took over an hour.

Oh, I also wanted to find my postage scale. I purchased a postage scale several months ago through Amazon. I finally have begun using eBay’s postage and shipping label printing service. In its earlier incarnations it was a cumbersome process, but it has now been streamlined to the point where even I can use it. Thus far, however, I’ve used it only for shipping USPS Flat Rate boxes. The item I was shipping today did not fit in a Flat Rate box, so I needed to have an accurate weight as well as the dimensions of the box. After additional digging and searching and swearing I finally found the postage scale. I had a postage scale years ago. I never used it. It remained unopened in its original package. I eventually gave it away to a friend. Then, last year, I had to buy another one. So actually my “bargain priced” postage scale kind of cost me at least twice what I actually paid for it if I factor in the cost of the previous one.

During the process I wanted to write myself a note. I looked for a pen or pencil on the dining room table. I couldn’t see one, so I thought I’d grab a pen from The Room of Doom. Then I discovered that while uncovering the printer I had stacked things on top of the box with pens and pencils in it. It was a precarious stack which I elected to not disturb. Instead, I went back and rummaged around on the dining table until I found a pen. Then I needed paper, obviously. I grabbed an envelope that had come in the mail. I tried to write my note. The pen stopped working. I attributed this to the glossy surface of the envelope, so I hunted around until I found a bit of plain, non-glossy paper. Of course the pen still would not write. More searching, more swearing, and finally I found another pen and was able to write my note, a list of steps I needed to complete in order to wrap up the eBay box and prepare it for shipping. Writing the note should have taken mere seconds. Instead, it became a major undertaking requiring a hunt for materials and the replacement of defective writing utensils. This little incident illustrates why I have so much difficulty completing projects. Even the most insignificant aspect of a task becomes, itself, a major, time-sucking chore.

Postage for a 14in x 14in x 14in box weighing 8 pounds 10 ounces came to $42. That’s with a $4 discount for using eBay’s shipping label service. Living where I do, eBay is not actually economically viable for selling small items of limited value. I could have saved some money and shipped the box Parcel Post, but Parcel Post shipping takes about six weeks to reach mainland USA addresses. Priority Mail should have it there in a few days.