I don't wash the Corvette as often as I should--why bother, with the driveway and dirt roads that it has to cross to get to and from our house? But I washed it today. My mother is visiting shortly, and I thought, what the heck, I can at least get the top eighteen layers of dirt cleaned off--it will only have two layers of dirt caked on it.
Even with all the paint chips that it has picked up over the last few years, it is still gorgeous when it is all freshly waxed.
Click to enlarge
However, it is time to admit to something stupid. Saturday night I drove over to my daughter's place in West Boise, and since I was parking the car on the street--and Boise is becoming a very rough town, almost like Los Angeles was in oh, maybe 1955--I put the glass top on the car.
When I left a few hours later, I pulled out on to Eagle Road, which is a 55 mph highway, and a few seconds after I made the right, and I was up to speed--whoosh! Suddenly, I had hot air blowing in on me.
I forgot to latch the top when I put it on. The wind picked up the glass top and sent it flying. Amazingly enough, it did not break. I parked, walked back, and retrieved it from traffic. People behind me either saw it in flight, or saw it lying on the right side of the right lane, and went around it.
The glass did not break. The frame did not bend. All of the hardware that locks it in place works exactly as it did before. But the glass is hopelessly scratched:
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Anyway, it's covered under the comprehensive glass policy of my car insurance, so it's only a $100 deductible that I have to pay, and it doesn't count as an accident as far as setting my rates is concerned. But do I feel stupid! As I explained to my insurance representative, "I'm sure that I'm not the first Corvette owner to do this, but I may be the first one to do so while sober."
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