Years ago a fellow writer, who was also a scientist, told me a story about a colleague of his who had proposed an extraordinary experiment that ended rather ignominiously. The story involved black widow spiders, which I learned are common in parts of western Canada. The venom of the female black widow is potent (about 15 times more toxic than a rattlesnake’s, according to one source I checked recently). Black widows are also notorious for hiding in odd places, such as under seats in outhouses—one of many reasons why they are an object of curiosity and fear. I was already getting a bad feeling about the story when my friend told me his associate wanted to know if a person might develop immunity to the spider’s venom. The pain he endured after allowing himself to be bitten was so severe and terrifying to him that he refused to continue the experiment, which he admitted with an open apology to the scientific community.

I remembered that story while changing the tires on my Beluga recently. I spent the better part of a day wrestling with makeshift tire irons and almost threw out my back while getting the old and cracked tires off and new Michelin S83s installed. I resolved never to do that again. It hurt too much. So I found a local garage that must install a lot of trailer tires or something because they said they could probably use their machine to do my scooter tires in a matter of minutes for $10 each. I’ll take them up on that offer.

One final word of advice about changing tires: it’s a good idea to install new rubber if you’ve just got a Beluga that has been parked for a long time. Even if your tires aren’t worn or cracked, water will have seeped inside and you’ll likely find a band or barnacles of rust along the rim, especially at the bottom. Get rid of the rust. You don’t want any excuse for a blowout.