Pheasant-1; Sparky-0

[Sparky-Watts]

What a way to start the day. I was cruising along on the way to work this morning just before sunup when a cock pheasant decided to introduce himself to my windshield at 55 mph. Needless to say, neither the windshield nor the pheasant fared too well in the encounter. I've got a pheasant sized dent of shattered glass in the top center of the winshield, and the rest is comprised of multiple cracks about a half an inch apart, top to bottom and side to side. The impact was right where the rearview mirror attaches to the windshield, and the force of the collision was enough to send the mirror flying into my forehead, leaving a nice bump that I could see out of the corner of both eyes. The mirror broke on impact with my head, leaving tiny shards of glass all over my face and down my shirt.

I left the Jeep at work and drove my work van home tonight. The glass company is coming out tomorrow to the shop to replace it. I'll get some pictures of it in the morning when I get back to work.

 

[Sparky-Watts]

Oh, did I mention that this is the 3rd time in 2 years I've had to replace the windshield?

 

[mingez]

And just think, had your jeep been lifted, it might not have made contact with the Mirror portion of the windshield. Too bad! LOL. Jk, glad your okay dude.

Get us a pic of the bump on your noggin!

 

[Sparky-Watts]

And just think, had your jeep been lifted, it might not have made contact with the Mirror portion of the windshield. Too bad! LOL. Jk, glad your okay dude.

Get us a pic of the bump on your noggin!

Yeah, but if it had been a surrey, it would only have been little pink and white dingle-balls that hit me in the head.:lol:

The bump on the noggin is almost gone now (at least I can't see it without a mirror anymore), but I'll see if it shows up in a pic.

 

[OutOfStep]

driving a vehicle with the same aerodynamic profile as a toaster oven has its risks.

The third week I had my TJ, a rock the size of a golf ball fell off a truck heading the opposite way on the freeway, it smashed into the hood and then into the windshield frame, dented them both pretty good. If it had been an inch lower it would have went through the radiator, an inch higher and it would have probably lodged itself in my passenger seat.

 

[Sparky-Watts]

Back in high school I was driving a '76 Datsun pickup and hit a pheasant on the way to school. It skimmed up the hood into the windshield and took out the driver's side wiper arm with it before cracking the windshield all to pieces. It left a dent about 3" deep on the hood from just behind the front edge to the cowl, about 6" wide. I ended up in the middle of a wheat field, because I saw it coming and laid down in the seat. I've always been afraid of hitting big birds like that because a friend of my dad's hit an owl once (and only once) and it came through the windshield, hit him in the face, broke his neck and killed him. I didn't have time to react this morning. It was dark and raining, and I didn't see it until it was already a few inches from the windshield.

I was surprised the insurance company could arrange to have it replaced as soon as tomorrow after last week's hailstorm. There was somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 broken windshields in west Wichita alone, and most body and glass shops are backlogged 2 months.

 

[OutOfStep]

That sucks. I was riding with someone and we struck a great horned owl. It came swooping in from the right; right into the grill of the truck. It was an early 80's chevy with that checkerboard plastic grill, it was a mess.


On a funny note, my aunt had a 82 white ford escort that was in a big hail storm that rolled through IL in the late 80's, it was dented in a way that it kinda looked like a golf ball. She didn't find it as funny as me...

 

[Utah_jeepster]

Ok the big question here....how did you serve up the pheasant the other night?

 

[jakbob]

damn sparky...you always have something happen to you...wether its a beetle, flying a f350, or birds, u have bad luck...try locking yourself in a little room with a lot of pillows..

 

[Sparky-Watts]

damn sparky...you always have something happen to you...wether its a beetle, flying a f350, or birds, u have bad luck...try locking yourself in a little room with a lot of pillows..

Just livin' up to my other nickname: $hit magnet. The other medics started calling me that because I used to always get the worst of the worst when it came to EMS calls......

 

[Sparky-Watts]

Managed to snap a few pics of the damage this morning before heading off for the day. It was still kinda dark out, so the pics didn't come out very good. The glass company fixed it while I was out running calls this afternoon. The stupid idiot glued the broken rearview mirror back on the new windshield, though!!:evil:

 

[Gig]

Makes you appreciate the way they make windshield glass eh? Could you imagine if it was just ordinary window glass? Sickening thought.... Glad you're ok.

Gig

 

[OutOfStep]

whats up with that crazy orange dirt, I thought Kansas had good soil.

Looks like he crapped himself right before impact (the pheasant)

 

[currupt4130]

Sparky he probably glued it back up with the mirror on so he could line it up correctly. Theres a screw on the mirror that attatches to a piece of metal that gets glued to the windshield. When you find a new mirror just swap them out. (Don't mean to insult your intelligence if you already knew this, just thought I'd let you know.)

 

[Sparky-Watts]

whats up with that crazy orange dirt, I thought Kansas had good soil.

That's good ol' slimy Cheney Redjaw dirt there. Some of the best wheelin' mud ever.

Looks like he crapped himself right before impact (the pheasant)

No, but I did. The nasty splat in the lower driver's side corner was a bug splatter.....

 

[Sparky-Watts]

Sparky he probably glued it back up with the mirror on so he could line it up correctly. Theres a screw on the mirror that attatches to a piece of metal that gets glued to the windshield. When you find a new mirror just swap them out. (Don't mean to insult your intelligence if you already knew this, just thought I'd let you know.)

Yeah, guess I didn't think about that, but honestly I'd just as soon he hadn't done it at all. He did a terrible job; there's glue smeared all around the "button" and it's even crooked. I was looking at replacements last night on Quadratec, and really liked the mirror with the auto-dimming feature, self-calibrating compass, and temp sensors, but at $189 I'll have to wait.....I could care less about the auto-dimming stuff, but I like the compass and temp.

 

[dingus]

I was looking at replacements last night on Quadratec, and really liked the mirror with the auto-dimming feature, self-calibrating compass, and temp sensors, but at $189 I'll have to wait.....I could care less about the auto-dimming stuff, but I like the compass and temp.

Yeah i spent quite a while drooling over that thing as well... very nice unit. ended up getting a GPS instead and i def. love it. got it for $189

 

[mud4feet]

.............. I was looking at replacements last night on Quadratec, and really liked the mirror with the auto-dimming feature, self-calibrating compass, and temp sensors, but at $189 I'll have to wait......

Sounds like a blinger to me, Sparky. You don't strike me as a bling type of guy. Like Dingus said, just get ya a GPS.....I got a nice Magellan Sportak Pro off eBay for $100 and just love it (replaced the one that got stolen). Or............just get one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/TIMEX-HELIX-ALT...931897789QQcategoryZ31387QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:






BTW, glad to hear you're OK. Man, if it weren't for bad luck........................

 

[Sparky-Watts]

Sounds like a blinger to me, Sparky. You don't strike me as a bling type of guy. Like Dingus said, just get ya a GPS.....I got a nice Magellan Sportak Pro off eBay for $100 and just love it (replaced the one that got stolen). Or............just get one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/TIMEX-HELIX-ALT...931897789QQcategoryZ31387QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Naw, it's not really bling at all, just a normal looking mirror with the temp or direction in the upper right corner and map lights on either side of the bottom. Besides, I already have a GPS, only mines not a toy like your Magellan....it's a Garmin.

Here's the mirror:

Mirror with Temp and Compass

 

[dingus]

Besides, I already have a GPS, only mines not a toy like your Magellan....it's a Garmin.

had to jump in here too, i have a garmin and its great.

Garmin eTrex Legend is the model. 8mb of memory, i have back roads loaded in there for the whole state of PA and it uses minimal memory, less than 5%.