Dan Keen Research

As I spend more and more time with Wendy in our apartment, I'm so... relaxed? happy? ... that I keep wanting to improve the place. I've never really felt this way about any of my other tenements, and I know I've stayed in far worse places. For some reason, though, I just want to make this place better.

My latest beef is with the windows. They're leaky (meh, I'm in CA) and they're difficult to open or close. They are all casement windows and so use the fancy pinion and sprocket with a long lever arm. Unfortunately, they are also several decades old, have never been serviced, and are either stripped or on the verge of stripping. It's like driving a car with bad synchros - even the good ones keep trying to pop out of gear.

So I tore one apart today hoping to improve it, but it doesn't look like it's user-servicable. Browsing on the net shows the same results. Replacement is the vast recommendation, and new units seem to be a thriving industry. And herein we get to a reason not to rent.

I don't mind putting in free labor to improve this place. It's a relaxation for me and it enhances my environment. But any money I put into it is money lost. I'll never see a return as it's not my domicile, I'm just renting. And so I'm stuck with stripped crank handles everywhere I turn.

... this is one reason the Camaro is still not track-ready ...