Today I’m celebrating a new milestone.  One that is so momentous it has brought me to the stuttering point, and so far-reaching I will celebrate it every year from this day forward.  What addition to my life has brought about all this gushing?

…hold that breath…

My very own personal post office scale.

I’ve been using it for my writing submissions, and it’s been a big help there, but I hadn’t mined the true depths of its vesatility until I realized that this year, I have no need to make a long and loaded trip to the post office to mail Christmas presents.  Nor a follow-up trip for those items which didn’t make it the first time or were discovered as being needed at a later date.  No cranky workers telling me to open my package for inspection, than refusing to ship it because it’s not taped shut.  No turning beet red when my child knocks over the fragile stack of boxes that the irate lady will now need to re-package.  No urgent trips to the bathroom after waiting in line for hours just to return to the tail end of the snake.

No, I have simply packaged up the goods, smiled benignly while my scale ounced away, and calculated the postage online.

This year, I am free.