Watch those bulls-eyes

On Saturday afternoon I got into my car when a glimmer caught my attention. It looked like a six inch piece of tinsel stuck at the base of my windshield. My brow furrowed as I focused my attention on this thing. My face fell into a scowl within a second upon recognition of this condition: my windshield was cracked!

How did this happen? When? I had driven the car less than an hour earlier, and there was no crack at that time. I turned the car around in my driveway and called my wife over. After she saw the crack she asked if ti could be fixed, as glass repairs have really improved over the years. I could only respond that I wasn't sure.

Later on I went to wash the car and noticed the line went all the way up to the mirror. No way that could be fixed.

So I washed my pretty little blue car and found the culprit. There was a fresh stone bruise, aka "bulls-eye," near the bottom of the windshield right where the crack started. Cracked windshields very often start from one of these chips. How can you avoid them? That's hard. Driving a little slower might help. Avoiding truck filled with debris ahead of you could lessen the risk. But pretty much, if you drive on highways, chips in the windshield (as well as your paint) are par for the course. You can only cross your fingers and hope for the best.

In my case, I have full glass on the car, so I got a new windshield from A&A Auto Glass in Brooklyn on the insurance company on a SUNDAY! From now on, I might slow it down a little.