The guy across the street is driving me crazy. How he's not driving himSELF crazy I have no idea. Maybe he was already there.

He recently acquired this Mercedes diesel. It's a nice-looking car, body's in great shape. But it is very reluctant to start in the morning. Exceedingly reluctant. Fucker just won't go. So his response is to sit and grind the starter continuously for 15 solid minutes -- just hoping, I guess. Then when the battery's dead, he goes and gets his roommate to give him a jump, and he sits back in that car, and he starts grinding the starter again. Continuously. Forever.

I think what bugs me is that he grinds at this car  for no apparent reason. It's not going to start, but he persists. It's like some rote action with no particular idea that anything should come of it. Like some existential nightmare Kafka might have had after eating too much anchovy pizza for dinner, except that it's shared with the entire neighborhood. Every day. I feel like that starter is sitting there turning my brain over and over.