Add “windshield” to the list of things to fix next week…
September 17, 2006, 11:17 PM
It seems that when it rains, it pours, as I had another incident in the Sable on my way up to Harrisonburg today. This time, I got a nasty crack in my windshield. I was driving up I-81, and a rock flew up and hit my windshield in the extreme upper left corner from my perspective. Since it was so extreme of a corner that it was actually on the black, I thought at the time that I’d gotten away unscathed, since I didn’t see any damage from my vantage point in the driver’s seat.
The purpose of my trip to Harrisonburg was to visit the Rocktown Infoshop, which is a left-wing bookstore on Elizabeth Street in downtown Harrisonburg similar to the Brian MacKenzie Infoshop in DC. I parked along Court Square in Harrisonburg, and walked the block or so to Rocktown Infoshop.
Rocktown Infoshop is a neat place. Besides a small selection of books (they aspire to have as much as DC’s Infoshop), they also have locally-made crafts, a free store where you can donate items and also take what you wish at no cost, and a place to sit and relax. The space is larger than DC’s Infoshop, and unlike the Infoshop in DC, Rocktown Infoshop is at street level, and therefore has a good storefront. Recall that in DC, the Infoshop is in the basement of the Flemming Center, and as such has a narrow set of stairs to access its outside entrance, and has no street-level storefront to speak of.
The only downside to Rocktown Infoshop is that it has no Web site as of right now. That’s why I provided no link to their site, like I do when I post from the DC Infoshop. There’s no Web site to link to at this point. I’ve already pitched the idea of making one for the place, and so the person I spoke with there is going to bring up the idea to the group. If they take me up on the offer, Rocktown Infoshop’s site will be designed by me, using my “Schumin Web Design” brand.
Returning to my car at Court Square, however, the Sable was not as pretty as I’d left it. I thought I’d gotten away unscathed after the incident with the rock. That turned out not to be the case. I came back to find a good 12-inch crack on my windshield stemming from (you guessed it) the location where the rock struck. I guess the heating involved with parking out in the sun on a warm day got to the windshield and made things worse. And before the day was over, the crack continued to get worse as it grew another six inches or so before I got home.
So needless to say, Progressive has been notified of the damage, and I’m hoping to get the windshield fixed while the Sable’s already in the shop next week to repair the damage caused by my collision with the deer. So when I get it back after the repairs are done, the Sable should be good as new again.
And lastly, I got my new printer/scanner/fax/copier hooked up, and it’s running just fine, though the initial setup was a pain in the butt. And with the shelf for my second monitor there, it didn’t fit right, so I couldn’t put it directly on my desk. So it’s up on that side shelf, where my old printer lived. And since nature abhors a vacuum, I now must figure out what to do with the blank space created by the removal of my scanner before it becomes a repository for junk.
Web site: J20, as seen on Schumin Web.
Song: Minnie the Moocher as performed in The Blues Brothers
Quote: "Oh, no..." - Me on discovering the crack
Categories: Driving, Mercury Sable