I was one of the lucky ones to score a blow-up pool in the pandemic, as most of them were already out of stock by the end of spring. But it took us forever to finally get it up and running.
I finally declared that we were getting the pool set-up this afternoon. Hooray!
There was rain in the forecast, but I calculated that we had enough time for a nice little dip before the storm was set to hit.
But then…
We cleared a spot and spread the pool out in the grass only to discover that the pump I borrowed from my parents wasn’t the right size.
I checked the instructions for insight. (You’d think one wouldn’t need instructions for an inflatable pool, but here we were…)
“Oh, it says to be careful dragging the pool around because it could tear,” I said to Justin.
About a half a second later, the pool tore on our makeshift fencing on the deck. Probably in multiple spots.
So then we were trying to patch up all the holes — hoping duct tape would be good enough — and fill the thing with air. After lots of scrambling, we ended up finding a pump for an air mattress that did fit into the plugs.
Finally, Justin began filling our sad, half-deflated pool with cold water from the hose.
“OK, Jackson!” I said. “Let’s go get your bathing suit on!”
And then we heard the thunder.
Jackson quickly climbed in with his clothes on — and slippers, too! — before we had to drag him inside.
So much for our pool day. Hopefully we’ll have better luck tomorrow! (Also, time to order some pool patches on Amazon.)
