Well, my baby is one year old this week. And that means an inspection in MA.

Used to be, you could drive your car yourself into the inspection bay. But alas, it's no longer that way. Because they have dynos to test for emissions (on a SULEV S2000??!!??), the inspection station has to drive the car in.

I know this is the only place in the world I can admit without embarrassment that I considered how to minimize potential issues with the local gas station grease monkey driving my car, even for 50 feet.

After long -- and I mean weeks -- of low-priority-thread calculation, I decided to take the car to a body shop that does MA inspections. The operable theory was the guy's hands would be cleaner and they'd respect a Zaino'ed auto more.

Things never work out as planned. The guy couldn't find the starter button -- "BMW's have them on the other side" -- and he stalled the car twice -- "Doesn't this clutch need work?"

Finally, he backed it out, new sticker attached and dust everywhere. It occurred to me that he's only the second non-owner to ever drive the car (the Honda guy at the slop house I bought it from) and last year's grease monkey.

I hate it when someone else is in my saddle.