"Call the glass doctor, he'll fix your panes."

What is it about "The West", and windshields?
I first noticed it while going through primary flight training at Ft. Wolters, TX back in '68...
Windshields belonging to most of the locals were pitted, noticeably.
I assumed it was due to driving through blowing sand at 70 mph... seemed to me having a grain-of-sand-sized "rock" hitting the windshield at that speed would leave its mark, right?

When I bought my Dodge Ram Diesel truck and had it shipped here from Palm Desert, CA, one of the first things I noticed was the similarly pitted windshield.
The pitting was an irritation, but only presented a problem to vision when driving into strong, direct sunlight.
The windscreen also had a small starburst crack in it... not in my main focus area, so I made a mental note that at some point when time and location permitted I'd have that sucker replaced.
Last summer I did just that. The cost was just under $300.

Three months later, at night, on Interstate 65 just South of Birmingham, AL we heard it... BAM!
"That had to have cracked that new windshield" I said to my beautiful copilot/navigator.
Sure enough, upon inspection I found a silver-dollar sized starburst crack in the lower right hand corner of the glass... 'way out of my field of view.
Screw it. I can wait until something else happens.

And then it rained. And rained. And rained.
When I went out to drive off in the truck I could literally have raised Goldfish in the passenger-side footwell.
I've been parking the truck under cover as much as possible since.

Today the windshield repair folks will arrive at Noon to once again replace the damaged screen.
The price is about the same as it was last summer.
Please... can we keep this one undamaged and leak-free for more than a few months?