SeaLyon:
That is really strange! I never would have been able to unravel that issue on my own. From now on, I'll definitely keep my enthusiasm in-check [!!] Thank you very much for the help.
When your arduino knowledge and skills progresses to knowing how (and wanting to of course) burn bootloaders to boards there is a updated bootloader available somewhere for the mega2560 that fixes that feature/bug so that you could then be as enthusiastic as you wish. 
Lefty