Inflatable pool? Blower and some duct tape

After a day of watching others play in the water at Austin's new cable park we decided to pull the trigger on a frivolous expense that had been on our watchlist since the weather started warming up--an inflatable pool.  We bought a small fancy plastic pool at the grocery store last year (which will soon become part of an upcoming sandbox project) but after a year it was pretty beat up so we'd been eyeing a deluxe model (with built-in seats for mom and dad) at Sam's club for a few months. 

Upon arriving home I realized that inflation may be a challenge (isn't it always??) as the pump we had left over from our boating days was 12V and I had no way to get a car nor the inflated pool into the back yard.  Further brainstorming led to the realization that my jump box with a 12V outlet was completely dead (better than finding out when it was needed to start a car!) and both our vacuum and my shop vac didn't have a reverse flow port (guess that's what I get for buying the Black Friday special at Lowe's).  

Out of ideas, I headed to the garage for a cold brew and some more brainstorming, at which point I spotted our duct-taped together leaf blower (it was free and as they say you get what you pay for) hanging in the corner, the outlet of which is perfectly sized (with some help from our sticky sliver friend) for the 12V pump fittings.  An extension cord and a few gallons of water later and we were ready to party!