To Dennis, Danny, and Jay,

Thanks for your kind words. I deeply apologize for the length of the letter; it took me several weeks to write it, and in the end I had to force myself to stop adding to it and just send it. I have pasted the e-mail response below:

--- On Wed, 2/29/12, STAR@DCA [...] [mailto> wrote:

[...trimmed text...]

I also received a personal call from Paul Hedglin (at work and in the middle of a smog inspection) in which he defended my zero score by siting a non-specific example of a vehicle that I passed with suspiciously low emissions numbers, and saying that there is at least one shop in my ZIP code that has a decent score. I don't converse well with strangers, especially about a sensitive subject in front of impatient customers, so I cut the call short, hoping to pick it back up later. Later still hasn't arrived...

Michael Barry
Technician
Quick Stop Smog & More
Sacramento, California, USA