If Necessity is the Mother of Invention, Duct Tape is its Godparent.

It's June. June means that its time to roll out the Intex pool for Austin. When you're five and a halfpint, a ten foot pool is a big affair. At this stage in your life, you can just about do laps in the thing.

I love this pool. The geniuses who designed it created what's ostensibly a non-rigid structure, the Goodyear Blimp of pools. The inflatable ring at the top serves to provide its initial form. Then, as the pool fills, the ring floats on the water to the point where it reaches capacity. It has a small filtration system that can also hold the chlorine tabs, preventing your one thousand gallons of water from becoming a soupy aquatic mess. The pool would be perfect were in not for the inflating of the ring.

Last year, it took close to ninety minutes to inflate the ring using a combination of lung, pump and air compressor power. This is not a fun way to spend a hot, humid afternoon. It was at this moment where the old Deacon had a brainstorm.



I'd seen sites on the web built to celebrate feats of Redneck Engineering. Some things were ingenious while others were deathtraps. So then, with the idea in place, it was off to the garage to retrieve the leaf blower, a funnel and the sacramental item linked to all redneck engineering efforts... Duct Tape.

The idea worked like a charm (refreshing as these things apparently go awry most times). I was careful to start the blower on its lowest speed, not knowing how the narrowed aperture would affect the blower motor. The motor was tweeked up to around 50% power output with no issues. The ring that took nearly ninety minutes to inflate last year was fully inflated within four minutes. Gotta love that Duct Tape!