“What Virgil Flowers Wore”

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Fans of the Virgil Flowers novels by John Sanford know and respect Virgil’s fondness for rock band t-shirts. I was afraid I would have to reread the novels to make a list but that won’t be necessary.

What Virgil Flowers Wore: An unofficial guide

“Dark of the Moon”
Sheryl Crow (carp)
Modest Mouse
Flaming Lips
Decemberists
Arcade Fire
AC/DC
Franz Ferdinand

“Heat Lightning”
Bif Naked
WWTDD
Hole
KMFDM (Money)
Pogues
Interpol
Death Cab for Cutie

“Rough Country”
Sebadoh
Nine Inch Nails
Breeders
Rolling Stones (Paris, 1975, tongue)
Gourds
Blood Red Shoes
Appleseed Cast

“Bad Blood”
Virgins

“Shock Wave”
Freelance Whales
My Chemical Romance
Slobberbone

“Mad River”
Wolfmother

DSL vs. AT&T Wireless

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We have a DSL line from our local telco for internet access. We pay $45 a month for 10 megabits download speed (never get more than 8) and less than 1 megabit upload speed. Not great but all that’s available where we live.

Been having problems for the last couple of weeks with technicians coming up to check lines, etc. Keep thinking they have it fixed but the problem persists so we’ve been using the hotspot feature on our iPhones. Yesterday I stopped by the local AT&T store to talk about our data plan to avoid getting surprised by a huge bill.

We’re currently paying $130 a months for 15gb that Barb and I share. Historically, we use very little of this but if we start making heavy use of the hotspot feature that could change. Without getting any further into the weeds here, I upgraded to an “unlimited” data plan for $150 a month. But the plan lets us stop paying for HBO and we get some other discounts so the faster service winds up costing me less than I was paying.

I’d never checked to see what kind of speeds I get from our AT&T wireless so I figured this was a good time to take a look. We’re getting 18 mbs down and 5.6 mbs up. More than twice as fast as the DSL line!

We don’t stream a lot of movies but do have Netflix, Amazon Prime and Apple TV. I’ll keep the DSL service for a few months while we monitor our wireless data use, but I’m thinking I can adios the DSL.

This is might be more noteworthy to me because I remember the dial-up modem days. 2400, 14,400, 56K. Dark days? An exciting time? Could never have imagined I’d be able to connect to the internet with a mobile phone. Could never have imagined a mobile phone.

Renz Prison Farm

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You can see what’s left of the Renz Prison Farm just across the river from Jefferson City, Missouri. I’ve been meaning to take a closer look for years and yesterday my friend George poked around for a a few minutes but there wasn’t much left to see. (There’s a bit of the history in this Vox article from 2015.)

The building is too far gone to get much of an idea what it was once like. I didn’t see many individual cells and assume the large open rooms were dormitories. This four minute video (not mine!) offers some different views:

Land Rover: The Home Stretch

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Mr. Wolf has been working the phones, looking for a good carrier to transport the Land Rover from Bay Area to Jefferson City.

“Got a pick up window with a great carrier, next Wednesday -Friday (Aug 15-17). They’ll tighten up the window early next week. They’re sending a driver that handles the Bonham’s & Gooding auction vehicles. I figure a week or less on the road depending upon how many stops they have to make before you.”

Sounds like we might see the thing in JC by August 24.

Patina

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Something about a rusted, beat up old pickup truck really speaks to me. I think I’d trade the MINI for this, straight up. And “derilict restoration” is a thing.

Spotted this beauty today in Springfield, MO. That is art on wheels. I could buy an old truck like this but no amount of money could buy the memories that go with the rust and the dents. The difference between buying a “distressed” motorcycle jacket on Rodeo Drive and wearing one for 20 years in a outlaw biker gang.

But that’s the romantic in me. If I could talk to the guy that owns that truck he’d probably say something like, “Fuck yeah, I’ll sell it. Don’t mean nothin’ to me but 20 years of shitty minimum wage jobs.”

Magnetic bumper stickers

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I don’t put bumper stickers on my cars for the same reason I don’t put tattoos on my skin. I’m committment challenged. Today’s clever sticker will seem dated and lame in a week. And I’ll play hell getting the thing off my car. So no bumper stickers. But every time look at a photo of the rear “bumper” on the Land Rover (looks more like part of the frame to me but everyone calls it the bumper) I think, “What a good spot for a bumper sticker”

Then I thought of magnetic bumper stickers. Sure enough, they make them and the made a couple for me.

Barb asked what would keep someone from taking this. And do what with it?

“Just show me Land Rover posts”

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I’ve had a few folks tell me they’d like to read about my Land Rover adventure but don’t want to hunt back through my other posts (113 to date). Don’t blame you. There’s a “category” link at the bottom of each post having to do with the Land Rover. Clicking that will pull up just those posts.

Clicking the photo in the top right corner of the home page will get the same results. If you care to comment, here’s how I have that configured. The first time you post a comment, I have to approve it before it appears on the blog. After that first time your comment will show up immediately. Love to hear from you.