myPod woes

It seems that every time I get close to laying my hands on an iPod, something goes awry. Now, God-forbid I resort to divine intervention as an explanation, but it honestly does seem that events have conspired to keep me from prostrating myself before Steve Jobs' alter until now.

To explain:

1. When MP3 players appeared, they were utterly impractical, and were only capable of holding an album of songs which you'd then need to replace each time you fancied a change of scenery. I prayed for something like the iPod.
   
2. With the advent of harddrive-based MP3 players, I considered and failed to buy the first generation devices, figuring that the technology would be bug-ridden and quickly rendered obsolete my resourceful competitors. A lack of immediate funds helped this decision.
   
3. The competitor's never produced a comparable product. With the appearence of larger capacity iPods with click wheels, I again considered trading in my tired (but "smallest in the world") CD walkman for a bite of apple's pie. In fact, I was gearing up to buying the player when the iPod photo hit the shelves.
4. The arrival of the iPod photo, and my reading of many an internet article, persuaded me that whilst the gadgets were not only beautiful designed, but also incredibly practical, they were in fact too simplistic and lacking in the kind of extras (that should be standard) such as record functions and radio tuners that other inferior technologies (tape and minidisc) had been able to offer for years. The articles also alerted me to the fact that Sony were designing gadgets hoping to rival the iPod in style, simplicity and functionality. And so I once again held off puchasing an iPod and insteaded opted to await the offerings from Sony with baited breath.
5. Now, truth be told, the Sony iPod alternatives failed to please. They lacked the ease of use of Apple's offerings, whilst forcing users to transfer all tunes to a proprietary Sony audio format using a truly awful piece of corporate bloatware known as SonicStage (the words literally send shudders down the back of my spine!). So finally it looked as if I had been sold on Apple's stylistic and simple offering.
6. Along came iPod nano (to replace the capacity-scarce Mini) and video, to please the Christmas-present-hungry punters. I have been sold on the iPod video in spite of its tiny battery life and lack of genuine video support, purely because of its ginormous hard drive and tiny form factor. Furthermore, a hugely generous donation of the moneyworth of a 4Gb Nano cemented the deal. I ordered an iPod video and eagerly awaited its arrival.
7. Imagine my horror when I called in today to see what time I would receive the unit, only to hear that the units seem to have sold out, island wide.
   

At the time of writing, it looks as if I am no closer to owning an iPod than at any other time in my history. Perhaps I am doomed to miss out on the iPod craze, and forever mumble bitterly about its stupidity?