Thank goodness they're no longer "Mighty".

Expensive deliveries and I rarely get along. Readers are well-read concerning previous deliveries, which led to the awarding of the Ass of Disapproval. I finally got around to purchasing a patio set, and when it arrived with two of the wrong chairs and one damaged, I was worried I would have to polish off the seal once again. Fortunately, they noticed the error themselves, and had replacement chairs delivered within a few days.

This this particular exchange went smoothly, it is not the focus of this story. The focus is what went on while I waited for the truck to arrive. I was standing outside my patio waiting to flag down the truck, when I heard something across the path. It was some sort of slapping sound. While I waited, I joked to myself that it almost sounded like some people were getting amourous out in the open; all that was missing was some moaning.

When I started to hear some shouts of encouragement and a woman's moan, as well as noticed the wide open door across the way, I decided it would be best to just go back and wait inside.

It's amazing how one little nuisance can spiral into a small fortune. When I bought my car nearly three years ago, I pleased to find that it surprisingly came fitted with a CD player capable of playing MP3s. This was a marvellous thing, and I pretty much have never listened to radio since. However, it did have trouble reading CDRs, and - particularly in hot weather - songs would skip as it would fail to read discs properly. Finally, I decided that enough was enough, and I would need to eliminate the increasingly frustrating nuisance.

Having avoided succumbing to Apple marketing so far, I decided to finally give in a get an iPod. I got an 80GB video iPod, figuring it would be more than enough for a long time. I also got an FM adaptor, so that it would be usable in car, thereby avoiding any skipping trouble. Of course, you can't get an iPod without accessoried. A pouch with belt-clip and armband for active use, and cupholder stand for easy access in the car, etc. Those all add up, as the manufacturers obviously believe that having the word "iPod" on the packaging justifies increasing the price by twenty or thirty dollars.

Then I discovered that FM adaptors suck ass. Not only is it next to impossible to find an available frequency in the city, but the sound quality just wasn't nearly what I was used to. I wasn't going through all this trouble to eliminate skipping just to deal with inferior sound. There was no way to hook up the iPod to my stereo, so I had to buy a new one. Plus one of those fancy adaptors that let you control the iPod from your car stereo's controls, and preventing nasty accidents. After all that was over, the setup totalled several hundread dollars. It's no wonder people pirate music; there's no way to afford it after you've bought all the accessories.