absent.canadian

No, not that kind of anniversary, silly.

Today is my 10th eBay anniversary.

On October 4th, 1999, I found a wonderful old book on eBay; a copy of Margaret Atwood’s “The Journals of Susanna Moodie”.  It was a book I had been looking for at length, and I hurriedly filled out the application to become an eBay member when I saw its pages gazing out at me from the funny little auction website.

Zoom ahead 10 years.  I’ve bought everything eBay–including a motorcycle, a computer, school books, antique pens, kitchen knives, car parts, and even a palmistry reading (yes, I can be an occasional sucker for these things).  In the early days I bought money orders at the post office; that evolved into my long-standing love with PayPal.  And I also sell now; some of my long-time readers may recall my profitable divestment of most of my film cameras in 2005, courtesy of eBay.

In fact, it’s gotten to the point that I will often do the bulk of my shopping on eBay.  The savings are often substantial, and I never have to deal with the hassles of busy stores, salespeople–not to mention the realities of substantial depreciation.

Thanks, eBay.  I know things haven’t always been perfect, but you’ve come through more than enough for this user.

You know it’s going to be a good week when your first waking thought is “shit – did I close the sunroof in my car last night”?

Nope.  And it had just started to rain.  Thankfully, my driveway is angled such that the bit of rain that came in only hit the armrest and the side bolsters of the front seat and a bit of the rest floor.  No damage done – just some wounded pride and cursing in the shower.

But the day promises to get better.  I ordered a TomTom last week, and eagerly await my membership into the ranks who never have to stop and ask for directions again.  I’m actually pretty good with directions and I make liberal use of Google Maps … but it’ll be even better to not have to waste paper printing out directions.  This also gives me one more compelling reason to not have a printer for my home computer.

I’m also biting my nails in anticipation of my first pair of jeans I bought on eBay.  I also picked up a pair of red Converse sneakers, and I’m looking for a new pair of dress shoes to replace my extremely battered ones that have been in desperate need of a funeral for some time now.