too bad they don't have a frequent customers card

My round-trip commute is about 50 miles a day, mostly on a highway.

In July 2004, I bought a new car, replacing my 10-year-old Geo Prizm.

On the way to work one day, with only 1,500 miles on my new car, a pebble hit my windshield just right, causing a small chip.

Being a brand new car, I was anxious to get it fixed. I called the glass repair company, who sent their mobile repair unit to my office to fill the crack that day.

Maybe I made it a year before the next rock hit. I went through the same process, leaving another faint scar on my front windshield.

The third strike happened a few months ago. We were on our way home from work, when a very large object struck near the top of the passenger side. We don't know what it was -- a rock? Chunk of concrete? Piece of a car?

Whatever it was, my husband (the passenger) wonders why he didn't duck -- if cars didn't have safety glass, it surely would have impaled him!

The resulting fist-sized starburst + cracks in every direction required installation of a new windshield (the mobile repair unit can do that at my office, too). I was happy to have a blemish-free windshield again!

That lasted until today, when a little sedan sped past me on the shoulder (he should have merged behind me). As he swerved passed me and changed lanes, he kicked up yet another pebble that created a coin-sized starburst.

Enter glass repair company, again. That makes four repairs in the two and a half years I have owned my car.

Actually, I have needed five glass repairs in the past three years. Shortly before its retirement, the Prizm needed a crack repair. (I wanted a few more months out of it, and wouldn't have been able to do that if the crack spread across the window!)

I'm just starting to wonder ... is my particular car model prone to rock attacks, or do I just have really bad luck?