Doors

I was thinking the other day about the major security issue with my apartment building, which is that those who do not have their own key regularly get in very easily by means of hanging around until someone with a key opens the door and allows them in. I myself have been guilty of this. What is one to do. Warn the person to stay back as you shut the door in their face? The situation just cannot conclude in that fashion without awkwardness.

Just what is one to do? Well, I have come of with a sort of an idea, although it cannot be carried out without some considerable expense, and it may be no good anyway. As that would surely be passed on to tenants like myself, I will not press my idea too aggressively, but it could work. I was thinking about the method by which it is ensured that light does not enter a room where it is not welcome. You have a set of two doors far enough apart that the first is shut by the time the second is reached.

Guarded Condition

I was watching an episode of "Perry Mason", and it opened with a cat burglar stealing jewels from some sort of mansion or museum in Russia. The burglar deftly evades the building's guards, who are stationed outside the main gate. It's worth noting that they were dressed in lavish, very elaborate uniforms, and one wonders what they would be able to do if faced with a threat. More evident was what they did in the absence of a threat.

These were the sort of guard that very aggressively passes back and forth across the same five or so yards in front of the entrance. The two of them crossed past each other over and over again, and I have to wonder what that achieves. I can imagine using movement to secure more of the perimeter when you have too few guards, but that would work if they were actually covering more ground than two men can observe. They weren't doing that.

O-Key Do-Key

I added another key to my keychain lately, which I admit is a rather mundane thing to report. One has to find a way of balancing remarkable events with universal themes, and I have to admit that in this case I may have blown it, but perhaps you'll disagree with me and say that I've done very well. That happens often enough. Anyway, I've got this additional key on my keychain, and it's beginning to get a little crowded.

It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have a multitool and a bottle opener on there, to say nothing of the many little plastic things that obtain discounts from stores in exchange for exploitation of my purchasing history. What do you call those things- fobs? If so, that's a shorter, less loaded name. They're a big contributor to the crowding of my keychain. That new key wouldn't even fit on the chain properly. I have it hanging off an intermediary loop.

Castle Keep

I'll just come out and say that the compulsion to write about my new apartment, which is fast becoming just my apartment, has gotten the best of me again. It is not for the last time, either. Not since my college housing have I lived in a multi-unit home with any kind of effective building security. Previous apartment buildings have appeared to be locked, but in fact were wide open. There being no actual security, I was under no obligation to support it. Things are different now that I'm in this place.

The front door locks automatically, as does every door which offers ingress. I'm told that to lose the key which opens it would expose me to considerable financial penalties, the purpose of which would be to replace the lock entirely. That ought to impress upon the reader the seriousness of the thing. I suppose that it's a refreshing change from places where I have lived in the past, if the addition of more oppressive security measures can be considered refreshing. There's a reason I favor virtually security-less Greyhound over eminently safe airlines: I feel more free.

Keys To Success

A great concern of mine, having moved around a lot in recent months, is that of being burdened by too many possessions. One can't help but accrue material goods over time. I don't buy a lot of stuff, and yet I found I had acquired an alarming amount of it regardless. There are gifts, free items and low-cost items of all kinds which add up. It's not helped by the fact that I can't bear to throw things away for fear that they will become useful sometime later. I don't think I'm one of those hopeless hoarders who paramedics must wade through stacks of newspapers and hordes of cats to reach with live-saving medical care, but I'm at least on the very low end of that scale. This all became more apparent as a result of moving, but a particular  category of personal item multiplied in my possession directly as a result of me moving. I speak of course of house keys.

I still have keys for my parent's house back home, although I believe the lock to have been changed. I often neglected to bring them with my on visits anyway, leaving me as helpless as a common visitor unrelated by blood. I ought to get rid of them, but of course I won't. There were two of them, both for the front door. It wouldn't have occurred to me that keys would be necessary for other things around a home, even though I always saw how vulnerable the mail was. Each of the places I've lived since I left that house have provided me with a key for the mail. Some of those places I've had to give up the keys immediately. Such was the case for the hostel in Koreatown and the first apartment in North Hollywood. It was not so for the place in Highland Park, as the bank's foreclosure left a certain vacuum in hands-on management, nor was it the case for the places I have lived in the last few months of wanderings. I gave those ones up just as early as was requested, but it did take a while.