Saturday, February 17, 2007

Ice and Windshields Don't Mix 

Thursday night around 9:45 I was driving home from class, cruising along the Mass Pike just west of Copley, when I saw a large sheet of compressed snow and ice fly off the roof an a green SUV (license plate 5566 something, perhaps 5566VB), ahead of me and one lane over. The chunk then broke apart into slightly smaller chunks in mid air, then take flight across the lanes. One of these tiny icebergs was determined to meet me, and it did. It flew right into my windshield, and the impact not only created the inevitable damage to the windshield itself, but also knocked my rear view mirror right off and into my shoulder. For a moment it felt like the ice had come right through, as there was impact and then something hitting me. But it was just the mirror. And of course the asshole in the SUV had no idea what had happened and kept cruising along. Just like the last time.

Yes, this is not the first time I've been assaulted by wayward winter roof debris. The first was nine years ago around Franconia Notch in New Hampshire. The person driving the pickup truck in that incident also had no idea and continued on. Of course that time I was rather freaked out and swerved a bit on the highway before regaining control. This time it was just, "Oh look, it's going to happen again. Can I get out of the way? Nope - cars all around, and it's coming right for me. BAM. Crap." At least this time I was left with a clear view. Last time it was spider-webbed all over the driver's side.

The glass repair folks were swamped yesterday, so they're going to be coming to my driveway to do the repairs today.



UPDATE: I just got a call from JN Phillips Auto Glass, who wanted to let me know that my insurance company has rejected my claim because (they say) I don't have glass replacement coverage in my policy. So now it's a check for $227.90 and an upcoming battle with the goofball agent who I think was a year behind me in high school.

UPDATE (1:00 pm): Well, no need to worry about paying for the windshield. The glass guy removed the gasket from around the glass and discovered that there is so much rot in the frame that there's not enough metal to which to attach the new windshield. And off he went.

Our new topic of conversation for this President's Day weekend: body work or new car?

UPDATE: I finally got back from our weekend away, and can now bring you the visual aids on the post gasket removal rot revelation:


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Posted by Rogueslayer at 8:59 AM