Irritability has got NOTHING on me.

Well, my car's in the shop.

Yeah, in case you didn't read here; Thanks to three weeks of nearly endless snow, my carport collapsed on top of my little gas-sipper of a commuter car, and squished it.

Not my best day, I can tell you.

Anyway, while making arrangements to get my car repaired, my wife and I discovered that we'd taken rental car coverage off of our policy for some reason!

Yup. No rental car for me to fall back on in order to get to work.

There's a silver lining to this, though.

My sister-in-law hurt her knee this last week, and is unable to drive. Because of this, I'm borrowing her car in order to get to work.

Her car? A Jeep. Soft Top. Really. Loud. On. The. Freeway.

Yeah. Not the best car to be driving around on the freeway, but I've gotta get to work somehow, right?

Well, yesterday wasn't too bad. The weather here has warmed up some, and the ice and snow aren't an issue.

However, this is the Pacific Northwest, and like everyone knows, it's raining.

There are two major problems I've got with the car I'm stuck with for now.

One: The windshield of a Jeep is designed for basic off-road work. Thus, it's quite flexible. Because of this flexability, the wiper blades at times don't make contact with the glass. This isn't good, because when it's raining the wipers are unable to clear the water off the glass, making vision even more blurry. I have to maintain a speed of no greater than 55 MPH in order to keep the wipers in contact with the windshield. Posted speed limit? 70 for cars. 65 for big rigs. Yeah, I get passed by EVERYONE.

Two: The soft top isn't all that stable. Most convertible covers that I've seen have the heavy-duty snaps that are a bitch to fasten and a bitch to take off. Not so with this car. Everything that connects the top for this one is..

Velcro.

Yup. Velcro.

Another reason I can't go above 55 MPH is that if I do, and a good gust of wind comes along, 2/3 of the top just come unfastened and start flapping about. This wouldn't be TOO bad if the weather were nice.. But no. It's raining here, and I need all of the cover I can get! I had to stop twice this morning to fasten the top back down because of a truck flying past me and causing a big gust to blow across the car.

So yeah. I'm trying to dry out and warm up this morning, and I'm dreading the drive home today.

Maybe I'll try to find some back-roads way home, and just take a scenic trip.

We'll see.

To any of you with experience with Jeeps:

HELP! Any suggestions?